After Langston Hughes
Some swear “America will be!”
Yet what has America been to me?
My parent’s parents came here bereft
To find a better place than those they left
And here for almost a century
We’ve lingered – yet eventually
We will move on. Is America a dream
Greater, better than those we’ve seen?
Should we have settled in Babylon?
Made the Assyrian plain our home?
Converted to the faith of Spain?
Upheld the Tsar, never left again?
Langston says we must redeem
The stinking carcass of the dream
That never fulfilled, hides in its bloom
Our Leader and our own rape rooms
Can the dream of America be made real?
If it hasn’t by now, it never will
It’s always ahead, but you know what I’ve heard:
What happens to a dream deferred?
America’s virtue is only a hope
Well, it’s been fun, I’m glad we eloped
But better pastures call to us clear
If we’d died for dreams, we wouldn’t be here
Copyright 2006 Rich Puchalsky
E-mail: rpuchalsky@worldnet.att.net
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Last modified: June 4, 02006