Happy 250th Birthday, America!

Two hundred fifty years in the land of the free Have you lived up to all you were meant to be? Have you repaid your debts to the ones who sacrificed for your birth? To the ones who died building your financial worth? The Indigenous people who taught you to live off of their lands You would not exist if not for their hands You tried to exterminate them like they weren’t your fellow man They’re still here despite your replacement plan Here to remind you that this land was never yours To remind you their people and spirit will endure Endure with a pride you will never know For your American pride is all for show How can you be proud of genociding your fellow people Is that what your god teaches in your steeples? Will you repay the Black people who built your farms, cities, and towns? Sentenced to a life of enslavement because their skin is dark brown Still paying in blood, sweat, tears and incarcerated labor Will you ever return to them their favor? You ran 250 years away from monarchy Just to end up with a king destroying your democracy Just to end up with an empire that looks no different from King George III’s And a Constitution full of empty words Taxing your people to death to fund wars for the wealthy But there’s no money for food, shelter, or to keep Americans healthy There’s no money for childcare and education The American king needs another golf vacation You elected a king who reflects exactly who you have been Racist, sexist, sadist; rotten from within A king entitled to everything and everyone because he’s a White man Even your wives and children, so protect them if you can Will your people ever wake up from the delusions of their American Dreams? To realize their silver screen America isn’t exactly what it seems In the summer of ’08 we had so much Hope We didn’t know half the country was still ready to hang Black America from a rope And a warning to Brown America, they got the same energy for you too Yes, just because your skin is a different hue America, you’re functioning exactly how you were intended A rich man’s land to play while the poor work and defend it Is this the birthday that makes you stop and take heed? Or will you continue down this path of destruction at full speed? I fear for the future of American children Only knowing conflict, violence, and a debt of forty trillion Are you proud of the country you’ve created for them? Worshipping a king whose behavior you won’t condemn? So, happy 250th, America. I got you a king From sea to shining sea, let freedom ring.