Land of Freedom <br />Land of Democracy <br />Big sprawling land of Liberty, <br />I love you. <br /> I hear you called a liar <br />and I know that it is so, <br />for I have heard your stories of opportunity <br />and still seen your people <br />begging along the boulevards <br />starving in the streets <br />struggling to survive. <br />I have heard of your patriotism <br />your pride and power, <br />and still seen the fear on faces <br />fumbling from one day to the next <br />forgetting what it was they believed in <br />in the first place <br />what they were searching for <br />feeling like a cog in the corruption machine <br />wondering where the ideals of the country went. <br />Still, I love you <br /> with you faults as big <br />as the Mississippi is long. <br /> <br />Land of the pioneers <br />Land of the immigrants <br />the melting pot called America, <br />I love you. <br /> I hear the voices of your people <br />and know what it is they say <br />for I hear their stories of love of life <br />of living in a land <br />where everything is offered <br />and often out of reach <br />of their pursuits of happiness, <br />where democracy is a dream <br />that the rich man rules <br />and the poor man pays for with his sweat <br />his spirit and soul. <br /> <br />Land of mountains <br />where deer dance <br />and corporations conspire <br />to take it all away. <br />Land of rolling plains <br />stretching across the ashes <br />of the American farm <br />evolving into asphalt highways <br />parking lots condos and strip malls <br />rising in the silo's passing shadow. <br />A country spread out wide <br />and weird and wonderful <br />where one man's vote <br />is still important <br />even if he is the only one listening.<br /><br />W.I. Stoneberger<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/america-3/
