Where I Come From

Where I come from

You can hardly take a step without shattered hearts

Crackling underfoot.

People in this world have become casualties

In this war that is

Life,

Teetering off the stage on which we play

Our endless part.

Whether it was yesterday

Or a million years ago

Or 9,273,

Each and every inch of this earth

Has seen a soul bleed.

That's not morning dew

Bejeweling the fog-shrouded plains--

Those are the tears of the angels.

It's not thunder you hear when

Night has donned his darkest cloak--

No! That is the sound of the heavens

Tearing themselves in two,

Roaring in torment and

Weeping away the bloodstains from what

These traitorous hands have committed.

"But this?" you say--

"This is America."

THIS

IS

AMERICA!

Canaan's own twin,

A land of milk and honey--

A land of promises.

Yet, the only promises I see

Are the ones lying trodden in the street,

Trampled,

Mutilated beyond recognition.

Promises from a man to a woman,

From a mother to her child,

From me to you and

From me to myself.

That

Is America.

That is where I come from.

But this is not where I am staying--

And where I come from is not

Where I am headed.

Where I come from is not

Who I am--

Or who I will be.

Where I come from is only

Where I come from.