Century of Rage

This country makes you weep
Half our forests, rivers and mountains ruined
This country makes you angry
Howling wolves, wild horses hunted down
This country dishonors life and praises
Death in battle hymns and flag-draped eulogies
Of twenty-five units gone to kill strangers
Twenty-two wiped out
Of the three returning, none revel in the
Glory of lost comrades and limbs

This country ransoms the flesh of migrants
And immigrants languishing in burning deserts
And prison camps after scaling a border wall
Where the sun and moon don’t shine without
A crack of light to enter

These streets bury its shame and hoards 
Its wealth in bank bailouts and stock buybacks
While the rest of us live paycheck-to-paycheck
In search of the American Dream

This country makes you forget its
History of betrayal with its
Counterfeit victories that rise
Like Twin Towers of illusion over
The specter of Sitting Bull’s ghost