America, Oh America

Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain,
We would bare our guns, our teeth and claws,
While millions beneath us groan and weep,
Their bodies our staircase
As we ascend this mountain of bone and blood,
To watch our empire rise.
America, oh America,
God is afraid to turn his eyes,
To see what he has created
Beneath these spacious skies.
Your good is all you allow us to see,
But how many men, women and children
Have been destroyed, burnt to the ground,
Beaten down and broken by your supremacy?
How can your seas shine,
When they are misty with the blood of millions?

Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
But these heroes are lies,
For they would deny the very citizens
Whose rights they’ve sworn to protect,
They’ve ripped out the people’s voices,
Twisting them and silencing them,
With tear gas and guns and excuses,
And they’ve hurt so many people,
Mothers, sons, wives, husbands, daughters,
Taken away, cut into pieces, never to return
How do we dare call ourselves America, oh America,
When our freedom is based on the color of our skin?

Oh beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Washed with their sweat and their tears,
America, oh America,
Your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
Can't breathe,
And it's you who are denying them air.
How can we call ourselves America,
When we've spat in the very definition
Of who we are when we founded this country?
America, oh America, 
Tell me, how can you sleep,
How can you turn away and close your eyes
When from sea to shining sea,
The water is running red
With the blood on your hands?

Author's Note

disclaimer: I LOVE AMERICA I just think it's a bit problematic sometimes