[I am not a US citizen but, in the wake of the recent spate of school shootings, I felt compelled to pen this Whitmanesque patriotic song for the only country in the world that has aspired to provide a homeland for all the dispossessed.

This is a stand-alone poem that also serves as the chorus that introduces the 7^th section of my more nuanced long grim poem about mass shootings entitled simply 17]

 

Song # 6 Parkland Requiem Chorus

 

From the swamped flora of the east

to the stars and baked desert valleys,

space and shining surf to the west,

from Alamo through rocky mountains

to wet Seattle,

from Sunset Boulevard

through South Side Chicago to the Bronx,

from Broadway to La La Land,

through Yellowstone

along the yellow brick road,

over the Interstate

on the Internet,

we sing in unison

and plead our common cause:

one nation under God.

*

We lay down snowdrops,

crocuses, prim-

roses, blue-

bells, hosts of

daffodils, over-

valued tulips and orchids,

humble asphodel,

pinwheels, irises, blossom, bread,

bracelets, apples, chestnuts, candy, candles

—all the fruits of nature and labor—

before the autocratic factories of your

automatic profits and arms.

*

Gum, ice-cream and lipstick no longer grace

our mouths. We tear off our pretty clothes

and dump them down in a jumble at your gates.

We pour our perfume down your drains

and solemnly process—

unlit, ashen, naked, gunshot-residue scented—

to lie down on and under the cold slabs

of morgue and grave yard,

angrily to sleep eternity away.