Reflections on Being American

This is a free country
Or so the experts say,
The rest of the world has problems
but not the U.S.A.!

We go to work and earn our pay
To buy the things we need,
And every dime we earn is ours-
That's not what they really say.

The IRS puts out its hand,
The state and the counties too,
You have to pay to run them all;
All this is nothing new.

The homeless people line our streets
And sleep in parks and doorways,
Hate crimes abound, and children starve,
And smog hangs o'er our freeways.

We curse our problems in this beautiful land
Where we've chopped down many a tree,
But with all the downside we have made,
There's no place else we would rather be.

For this is home in the deepest sense,
From the plains to the ocean bar,
Each tree and hill and mountaintop
Is a facet of who we are.

~ Mary Eileen Butera ~
Copyright © 2011
All Rights Reserved

[ by: Mary Eileen Butera, Copyright © 2011 -- {used with permission} ]