Dear America,

 

Where are you?

I searched wide and far, to the purple mountain majesties and the golden prairies and the endless skies so blue.

Did I come out of my mother’s womb to see that everything they whispered was not so true?

Because I am in a labyrinth, a place I so familiar, yet new,

And every path I take I still cannot find you.

 

In every path are doors and flying keys,

Which I snatch out of the air to see the possibilities.

And every door I unlock I see disease,

Disease of the mind and the heart, I see hate, the kind that makes me want to weep and fall down to my knees.

Please America, I’m lost, help me please.

 

So if I can’t find you, I’ll move on to the next door,

I see wealthy whites and refugees who are so, so poor.

I close my eyes because I don’t want to see this anymore,

So I move onto the next door.

 

I see slaves in chains and their blood, sweat, and tears who are stuck in a place with no light,

I see the wars, the endless raging fight.

Where many innocents died only to see the casting moonlight,

For the freedom they tried and was out of sight.

 

As I go back and into another opening,

Could I have sworn I saw a woman beat for asking to have the same pay as males, that I couldn’t help noticing.

That these women were leading protests about abortion and law, gestures motioning,

Because they wanted to be equal and here they are coming.

 

I see the bombings and a religious group being blamed for the action of one,

And the words that many spit or the looks that they give, makes me want to run.

And the scared looks that they’ll give will stun,

I notice, this has just begun.

 

America, where are you?

I found you, now.

You are the country many will dream, but others will run away from and scream.

America, you say you are the land of the free,

But all I see is pain in everybody.

I leave the maze, which is you America, but I leave with the masterkey.