Steve Shultz (Podpoet).
“Is This My Country?”
City of my joy, city of my dreams
Under water and forgotten
Corpses floating by
Babies dying
Young and old blacks, old whites
That could be my grandmother
Dead in her wheelchair
Or my brother’s corpse
Floating in the water
A covered body floating in the water after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Sept. 5, 2005.
|
Singer Harry Connick, Jr., prays over two dead bodies outside the New Orleans Convention Center. Sept. 1, 2005.
AP Photo/Houston Chronicle,
Melissa Phillip. |
My President is bragging about his war
Surrounded by white-clad sailors
Spending the night in the white Hotel del Coronado
While blacks, mostly blacks
Suffer and die
President
George W. Bush speaks during a ceremony to commemorate the 60th
anniversary of V-J Day at the Naval Air Station in San Diego, Calif.,
August 30, 2005.
White House photo by Paul Morse.
|
Hotel del Coronado
Public Domain Photo
at Wikipedia.
|
The aid trickles in
More die by the hour
Donate to the Red Cross
I do so but feel worthless nonetheless
It is not what I can or cannot do
Do or do not do
That would save those people
It is what my society
My government
My leaders
Are able to do
They disappoint me
And I am ashamed
Of the government
Of the society
I call my own
And am part of
And am at least in part responsible for
I’ll become better than that
And settle for nothing less
From those who lead me
Goodbye New Orleans
I’ll see you again on the other side of this nightmare
Source
Steve Shultz (Podpoet). “Is This My Country?” Hellicane. Web. 2 Sept. 2005. <http:// hellicane. blogspot. com/2005/09/ 1-is-this-my-country.html>.