Twas thinkin' today

Twas thinkin' today
while lookin' out the window of a bus
headed to a job interview
for a job I pro'ly won't get
cause no one is hiring
and I have nothin' to bribe them with
other than the sad look in my eyes.

Maybe I should bring a recording
of my childrens' cries next time
and play that quietly in the background
as I talk about my ten years
of experience.

Nah, they'd only be drowned out
by the sorrows and the woes
of the woman who came before me,
and the man sittin' in the hall waitin' his turn.
And his sister and her husband
all lookin for jobs,
and their neighbors
who lost their house,
and their neighbor's neighbors who's brother
came home from a war

that dug a hole
in this country's heart
so deep that every
single
person
still
bleeds.

And how we all meet in line
at the welfare office
and how even the playin' fields are now
cause we're all broken.
Some wait for food 'assistance'
because they can't afford the
payments on the houses
they couldn't afford to buy.
And some are waiting for food 'stamps'
cause they don't give a shit
what you call it,
they're hungry.

This is not the America we saluted in school.
This is not the country who's birthday
we celebrate with sparkling fireworks,
followed with oohs and ahhs of sheer joy
from believing
there was a place
on this earth
so beautiful
it deserved
to be loved
this much.

And that that place was ours.

And every morning as I send my boy off to school,
and ever night as I tuck him into bed.

Only one question gnaws away at me.

What will his America be?