America is Not Free for Us
I live well
My parents feed me every night
My stomach is never empty
The latest toys fall into my lap
A stay at home mother for me to cry to
I had not realized
That this could be described by saying
I am blessed
I did not understand what it meant when my mother said
“He’s been laid off.”
I only thought I might get more time with my father
But instead I suddenly began going to bed hungry
I had learned that the latest toy cannot be mine
Duct tape is no longer for paper, but instead for my shoes
My father said it fixes everything
Can it fix my sadness?
I was blessed middle-class
Until I naively watched the economy crumble
Fall in crashing sheets around us
Leaving broken businesses and parents
Unable to provide for their own
For their young daughters
Who just want a new doll
Suddenly my mother had to go off for work
Two jobs to make up for the lack of my father’s
No college degree between them
They said they suffered in college
Now we suffer through childhood
Why can’t I buy new clothes?
Why must I wear these to threads?
Why is there nothing to eat tonight?
What do you mean sell the house?
I was not even ten when my lifestyle was ripped from me
As skin from bones
I did not understand how money worked
Only that we didn’t have it
I forgot what the word “full” felt like in my stomach
And when I asked who would help
My mother could only say no one
I have grown up impoverished watching those around me drown in the same
Not a single person to call to
Who will listen
We are swept under the rug
Dragged through the mud by the very nation
Who claims to be free for all
But it is not
It is not free for those who must sleep in the streets
No food
No money
No help
America is not free
In the oppressive economy
Our country has failed us
It barely picks itself off its feet
That are already surrounded by the hundreds of shattered families
And ruined kids who will go on to be labelled as nothing
But I see survivors in those that are not given a silver spoon.
And we stand together
Brought together by where our country has failed
By our ideas to fix the lack of support net
The lack of compassion for the second society
America is not free for us
America is free for the rich and oblivious
Who know not the pain of hunger
But we do
And we will make America free for all