Land of the Free

Angry Song

I speak only English

No second to fall back

I am from one place

One baptism

 

Streets I walk are singular

No plurality intrudes

I know who I am

I know who you are

And I walk with my big, desert boots

 

Walk where I will

Through the middle of my town

My space with its little shops

Its park, its bandstand

I walk the main street as one

I am one

 

I don’t read too many words at a time

It is too confusing to think about

To puzzle out the shining truth

From slogging through this coal

So I shoot first ask last

And achieve liberty and justice

Blow the smoke from my six gun and walk away

Walk my bow legged walk away

 

Walk to what is the question

Walk to whom, where

Does it matter as long as it is mine

And mine is mine to do with as I please

And yours is mine

Wait, I didin’t mean that

I only want the best

For me, I mean us

I mean we the people in order

 

Oh don’t give me death

I’ll give it to you and you and you and you and you…

Reviews

[R J Askew]

I confused by my own reaction to this. On the one hand something in me says 'yep, stick with the yanks' when it comes to the fight with those who would see American topple I would stick with the yanks. On the other hand there is a narrow chauvenism about the poem which captures something me this Brit also. I am not sure that is so good, but what the hell! I'm in knots again. The guy in the poem is not in knots however. Maybe his strength is also his weakness.

[bob, small b. aka invs]

odd how everyone sees something different when they look at this. i see arrogance, jingoism, blindness, bullying, irony, sarcasm. not much funny about those things. this seems to be an indictment of america at its worst. fair enough. we can be pretty obnoxious. you expressed it well. the images you used made sense. the cowboy image especially. a nice piece of writing.

[bluessadmood]

no no politics no more ,i will speak truth as i see ,i read here so many things i did see with my own eyes again please i dont preach politics ,call it humanity call,i think thats the best to tell,yes its said here,it says here i just shoot ,justice and liberty protect my back,no you do not give me death ,but i give you ,and it happened and happened a lot ,i am not a liar i say what i saw with my my own eyes and death not the insergents lets say like on battle ground while there shooting on both sides no i am tell about innocent people ,i have seen whole families blown away with their homes over there head blown to to the air,i my self escaped being shot at so many times ,and i could count examples from now till forever or innocent who did nothing but where just accidentally going through that place but were taken away to heaven,oh yes they were taken to heaven to his grace ,God ,for they did nothing wrong ,they lived in their land ,so peaceful ,they had families to raise,they had hopes and dreams to raise but all were taken away in one shot no more so they ceased to exist so they are too no more,no more...

[Raef C. Boylan]

I've always hated Westerns...the faceless deaths, crowds of 'baddies' simply there to be bullet fodder; I think they must cause more mindless violence than things like slasher films, because at least there is an attempt in those to establish personalities and create empathy.
Sorry - I think that mini-rant was sparked by the "bow-legged walk" stanza.
And America will always be associated with Cowboys
[hmm...a possible starting line to a poem...]
This is chilling. Taken as a metaphor, it's powerful; when applied to real life, however -
"I don't read too many words at a time
It is too confusing to think about
To puzzle out the shining truth" - it is a look at ignorance and its widespread dangers.

I guess, because of the title and certain lines, that this is a criticism of America's attitude. So perhaps your narrator is a World Police[man].

I didn't find it funny like others here did, but it gripped me. Nice work.

[Adela Muresan]

Well I can certainly say that I didn't found this poem the least bit funny ( like the others did lolz ).
You made the rule of life very obvious in your poem :,,Kill or be killed,, . I only hope that one day people will value the purity of their souls above money ( the reason for every war ).

A.M.

[James K. Blaylock]

I enjoyed this piece, and it did seem kinda fun and funny. He's handing out justice... one bullet at a time.

jkb

[Jason Henry]

i like how serious it was in the beginning, then how it ended kinda funny...kinda wierd-ish...certainly an interesting read. keep it up...