Death of The American Dream
by Carey Lenehan
Well, Hell, America!
What did you expect?
Did you really think things would be any different,
just because,
you backed a horse of a different colour,
because it said it would change,
the Unchangeable,
because you were promised, a status flux,
because it said, we can,
when it really meant to leave
the rest of you at the door?
What did you expect?
That prejudice would disappear
and find unity stabled in its place?
Really?
Did you think that the truth would out,
that the power-mongers would relinquish
their uranium grasp
and give the world back to you
on the heels of a fresh contender?
Did you?
No, I don’t think you did.
I think you all knew that,
what was started
could not be stopped by a change of bloodline,
that the greedy
had already stripped the meat off the bones
leaving a clacking, skeletal America
dancing frenzied,
all the way to the banks.
I think you saw
that relentless corruption
had murdered the American Dream
and become an irrevocable torrent
that would only overwhelm and submerge your lives
in an ocean of indebtedness
for a hundred years.
Not even Man O’ War could’ve beaten those odds
or overcome that handicap.
Here you are, America,
at the end of the road of opportunity
and self-fulfilment,
brought down by the rapacious appetite
of uncontrollable capitalism.
So tell me, how’d that work out for you?
And when you vote for the next horse,
don’t expect earnest promises
to change much about your falling society
because,
Only YOU can do that.
