i AM america

Do I love America?
no comment

but this is true:
i AM America

My blood is centuries of America:
farmers, soldiers, sailors,
and sales-people,
scrappers, survivors,
and do-it-yourselfers

My grandpa sailed in World War 2,
destroying German mines:
The red-headed cousin I used to share a bed with
fought in Iraq
and fights in Afghanistan,
as does one of my oldest and best friends...
with whom I often hunted
with guns we knew not to turn on other humans
unless in uniform under old glory;
not everyone makes this neat distinction

It is a land of danger and opportunity,
invention and tradition,
solid sky-scrapers to stun the mind
and quiet country miles

It is a land of workers:
ladders, hammers, hoes, and tractors,
type-writers and computers
are in our souls and in our blood.
"If you don't work, you don't eat"
is an old and common sentiment,
often followed too well...
but not without merit.
America loves her beggars
as well as her inventors,
and loves them just the way they are

She also loves the illegal immigrants
who pick our pears in the hot sun,
who care for our old and disabled,
who work in our factories
for "illegally" low wages;
When they're sick,
they go the hospital without fear,
and their children attend our schools.
They also make good scape-goats

Do I love America?
no, yes, maybe, sometimes.
Proud tradition leaves me free
to say any of these things.
so YES and NO,
and we're not leaving

Like Langston Hughes,
Walt Whitman,
James Taylor,
and Robert Frost before me,
i "AM america"

bearded and wild-eyed in a sweaty tye-dye,
i AM america.
Were I to fall in love with a man (I will not,)
go to jail,
become black or Asian,
or happily live awhile in Germany or Zaire,
I would still be America

Do I recommend it?
no comment.
This is not the American way.
It is, for all its flaws,
a "free" country.
Come thin and wretched,
or just as a well-heeled tourist;
We will shake your hand
and share a beer
or a glass of French wine