pomes of buddy don: The American Dream

(Reflecting on the Democratic Nomination of Barack Obama for President of the United States of America)

The American Dream

Arriving in chains in 1619
To be sold as chattel, fed leftover swill,
To be used as tools to help others fulfill
What grandly is called the American dream –

Stripped of their dignity, their divine right
To keep their own customs, live with their kin,
Or even to speak their own language again –
Forbidden to learn how to read and to write,

They cooked all the meals, they worked in the field,
Bore for their masters more slaves to be sold,
To be broken long before they were old
While keeping their hopes for freedom concealed –

Yet their deepest dreams could not be curtailed,
They not only endured – they finally prevailed.

When given freedom, “emancipation,”
And told they’d receive both land and a mule,
Jim Crow came along with methods so cruel
As to keep them bound in poor desperation

By lynchings and terror and burning crosses,
Through use of the poll tax, strict segregation
And harsh laws against miscegenation,
They were left free to serve the same bosses.

Yet they would not let their struggle die
As they nourished dreams, refused to succumb,
Promised themselves they would overcome
And lift every voice, to sing to the sky,

That their deepest dreams would not be curtailed –
They not only endured – they finally prevailed.

Today we have seen what we never believed
We could see in a land so divided by race
That seemed destined to live with the disgrace
Of ideals long cherished, never achieved.

Yet OUR deepest dreams no one could curtail –
We ALL have endured and begun to prevail!

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