4th of July

We are not living in America

We are living in a definition of America
that has replaced America
and become the America
that everyone thinks is America
because it’s what the people who argue about America
mean when they say America

And every time we use the word “America”
even to say it’s not America
we start by pointing out that your America
is not and never will be our America
which is the victory of their America
and leaves us with nothing but a lost America:

a country that’s been kidnapped, and must be
rescued by us--

a nation splintered by
a standing civil war about a word--

the bastard son of Jefferson and Heminges--
an Edmund who (great thing of us forgot)
will kill the innocent Cordelia
in all of us, and then salute the flag.


Copyright 2011 Matthew J Wells