About "The America Poem"
During Iraq War II, a number of poets
living in Boulder, Colorado, thought it might be an interesting
exercise in social discourse and poetic possibility to invite
everyone they could contact to submit one line on the model
of Allen Ginsberg's "America.” Hundreds responded—from
National Book Award winners to third graders at Coal Creek Elementary
in Louisville, Colorado. No voice was excluded. Here (hopefully)
the pedantic and the ridiculous, anger and dialogue, can coexist.
The America Poem
America,
you're turning your uranium cities into bullets
America,
sing me another tune
America,
there's no such thing
America,
ferme ta bouche Bush
America,
where did all my sweat go?
America,
you're turning me off
America,
it's time for charity
America,
wait for me at this STOPlight
America,
no where else to be
America,
you have a runny nose, bad insurance coverage,
and corpses in every
river
America,
this isn't a fucking Coca-Cola war
America,
when will you stop getting ripped off by breakfast cereal,
when you know it's
so expensive
America,
I've made love in all your languages, no other
America,
there are tribes of bears stepping on your tiny suns
America,
fuck tomorrow's contractors, I'm hungry now
America,
it's not you, it's me, really
America,
damn your clocks, your ratios, screw your fast food
America,
the pilgrim-hat signs on the Mass Pike
America,
you are grounded, you are go-to-your-bed-without-your-
supper-&-wash-your-mouth-out-with-yesterday's-news
America, I'd leave you but my soup's cold
America,
who hired a French savant to construct the green eyes of the
Statue of Liberty?
America,
are you for Real?
America,
the Indonesians don't care for your unhappy bibles
America,
we know you're proud of your high-heeled maryjanes
America,
I'm turning you off
America,
I am your free wheel
America,
is this a movie or something?
America,
look at yourself
America,
Ronald Reagan never lied like this
America,
my mouth's full of gob stoppers but I can't chew
America,
are you expecting me to be afraid of a cropduster?
America,
take it from me, you oughta bathe
America,
your name on a grain of rice
America,
goddamnit, your cat's on my lawn again
America,
laugh! we're killing us
America,
as I was saying, parsnips
America,
we are north, what about south?
America,
transmogrify!
America,
it's time for your colors to be neon
America,
I can't throw or spell and I don't care neither do you we're
a little bit
creepy America, you
are Svetlana that Puerto Rican gal with 13 children
America,
thanks for the kick-ass boots
America,
let your hair grow out
America,
I've driven across you without falling asleep
America,
reality television bores me, I'd rather watch my friends go
mad
America,
the parachute drop into Basra was by British who know
what they are doing,
they are so understated
America,
get drunk and undress yourself
America,
my anus is red white and blue
America,
I could rape you in an unsafe place
America,
somersaults... somersaults
America, I'm shedding your exoskeleton, I sadly
remember wanting to be
an auto-bot, now I don't think they're funny
America, silly little twat
America,
why aren't we millionaires? It's sinister
America,
I did not notice
America,
it's been months since the last oval orgasm
America,
I'm in love and he's hideous
America,
you smelly piece of shit
America,
this is funny: there are mice on the moon
America,
I wear my dyke pride across my breasts, not t-shirts
America,
go home and sleep on your skyline and purple mountain majesty
America,
how does your tv know what to say and how to blaspheme
the weather of man?
I will sell you America
America,
they still under-report
America,
puke on my balls
America,
white-washed again
America,
land of the free and home of “Fuck You!”
America,
please don't touch me there.
No means No.
America,
your eggs are all in one basket
America,
you are a nymphomaniac flight attendant in the cockpit!
America,
the hypocrite of what we stand for
America,
what were you before cancerous
patriotism & rerun twilight zone McCarthyism?
America,
what about the children? Who will
take care of their mothers and fathers when they fall?
America,
you spend your “defense” budget on antonyms
America,
are you a democracy?
Amercia,
you are Joan Collins and Danielle Steele having a martini with
The Corrections
America, you are cubical nightmare livelihood
we'll defend so fervently
America,
you are pantyhose on oil pumps
America,
you are tumbleweed whistling past fire hydrants
America,
dropped from the ass of a pigeon
America,
your mother's summer dress is a disney theme in my head
America,
your tabernacle choir is turning my dreams dark
it's ravishing my
ear
America,
what happened to your open arms and purple mountains majesty?
America,
I can't seem to find you in the dictionary.
America,
I'm tired of all your shit.
You lecherous husband,
stop leering at other women.
America,
nothing's funnier than poop, but.
America,
you don't even have poop left.
America
merica erica rica, no, muy pobre en el alma.
America,
you left the oven on.
America,
band-aids don't work for that.
America,
why don't you call home any more?
America,
please give me back my sandals.
America,
where did you hide the moon?
America,
silicon hairy-toed panic beware of the Bomb!
America,
take your sex toys and fetishes to the streets.
America,
litter your roadsides with flower petals, gummy bears, and
torn-out pages of Emerson.
America,
fuck off.
America,
where are your superheroes?
America,
what the fuck?
You wall-eyed whore.
America,
Grandma needs more fiber.
America,
I think Grandpa died last night.
Amerika,
ich weiss nicht -- wenn
Du jung warst, hab' ich gedacht... aber.
America,
I have indigestion. What did I eat today?
America,
no more French fries.
America,
will you choke on freedom fries then?
America
of the Poopy Hemisphere.
America,
what happened to diversity?
America
- that's a Republic, right?
America,
on a par with Canadian dollars.
America,
I never told you your nickname; “Ameri -poop.”
America,
why do you forget that you're South and North?
si,
Arrerica, tu tienes Brasil, Venezuela, Bolivia, y Tierra del
Fuego.
America,
America, have you seen yourself in the mirror lately?
America,
sit down, shut up, and for god's sakes have a beer.
America,
blah.
Anerica,
go lick a fat man' s balls.
America,
kiss many little toes every morning for good health.
America
- sounds pretty - first name of an Italian hustler.
America,
where are your literary programs, soup kitchens and truth?
America,
spell yourself backwards and call yourself a new country.
America,
go home.
America,
it's amazing what Bush understands.
America,
I don't think I want to understand you.
A
bloody
M
ess
E
scaped from a
R
ich
I nitiative. I would
C
ry if I had
A
tear left.
America,
hard truths become more painful the longer they go untold...
America,
I am wanting you to stand still for a minute, no one can hold
you
and look you in the eyes.
America,
you have been my home for 400 years; I think that makes me a
native. America, shoot me in the heart with rubber bullets why
don't you?
America,
hear us all as we cry with you.
America,
stop making faces at me.
America,
when can I pay my taxes without regret?
America,
your comfort
in the long shadow
of the primordial collective unconscious
will be our undoing.
America,
your ugly prejudice and hate cause me to cry, while your diversity
and potential for compassion cause me unsurpassing joy.
America
- with 75% less history!
Like a bully who picks fights for attention, its time for America
to grow up.
America, you have a beautiful name and you
are beautiful and exotic!
You are North and
South America.
The United States
is of you; it is not all you are, America.
We forget this. Our
television and our gigantic appetite and
Coca-Cola makes us
forgetful. America, you are much bigger than US!
America,
shut up and sit down, please—you're infantile boosterism
smothers us all.
In the smoking rubble of what used to be a city, a
hyenawearing a top
hat hisses, “War and Corpses, Last Hope of the Rich.”
America, like a stealthy lover who leaves wordlessly
in the night, your
promises lies, your caresses betrayed, your soul violated.
America,
there are more plastic flamingos in the U.S. than real ones.
America
my love, you are one sick artichoke.
America,
your cologne is making me nauseous
America,
I stand in line for this
America,
you are the poem waiting to happen.
America,
the sublime and the ridiculous
you lose your magic when you pullout your guns.
America,
the blood flows gasoline absorbed by thin soil skin
or
America
the beautiful is a tone deaf castrato singing on key
America,
even your squirrels have their hands in my pockets.
America,
shock my ears with your monotonous groan.
America,
melting pot of the world, is there room to
add more to the mix, or has the amalgam solidified?
America,
will you stop perpetuating the myth of the liberal press?
America,
who are you for what you do?
America,
why is killing a solution?
America,
you mean liberty and wealth
America,
you're a beautiful place
America,
how do you do?
America,
you're the best place in the world
America,
why don't you evolve? Why don't we develop?
America,
I support you in this war
America,
I love you
America,
stop the war
America,
the greatest country in the world
America,
a beautiful place
America,
stop the war
America,
I thought you were great
America,
a united nation split apart
America,
you are my home
America,
why are you in a war?
America,
when will we stop being judged by our looks?
America,
where are you when I need you?
America,
why do you brag about your power?
America,
what's with the bombs dropping on Baghdad?
America,
make the war end
America,
the coolest place in the world
America,
the land of the free
America,
why do we work for the rest of the world?
America,
thank you for giving us the freedoms we have
America,
why do you go out to fight after only one try to handle the
problem peacefully?
America,
we are fading
America,
why do you let people like Bush be president?
America,
why do your people suppress freedom of speech?
America,
why are you making people take risks?
America,
why are you so dirty?
America,
stop the people from looting and polluting
America,
stop being a hypocrite and telling other people to stop making
chemical weapons when you have some
America,
when will you stop the war?
America,
when will I see you?
America,
your centerfold is wrinkled, wet and sticky
America,
there is afghani applesauce in your syringe
America,
you are not a country
you are a
continent
America,
me first
America,
did I ever, really, know ya?
did I ever,
really, ever, really?
America
needs a cock punch
America,
I am laughing in your general direction
America,
my name is Jeff and I crack books and eat fireworks for breakfast
America,
where's the beef?
Has it all
turned green?
America,
you're low on fluid...check your rotors
America,
approach the mirror with a ruthless eye and an honest heart
America,
your wings are clipped...it's gonna be a short flight
America,
why are you running in high heels?
America,
you're a pin-up popstar on a
crumbling
cardboard shack in Afghanistan
America,
land of carnage, I exit thee
America,
please supersize it
America,
there's more to share than truth or dare
America,
the land of the free, so don't think you
can walk
all over me
America,
listen without eating so much red meat
America,
all broken glass and feather, blood and honey; home
America,
you ride on the back of the world
America, your beards are feeble and your sunsets are too explicit
America, a country that has bled and lived to tell the tale
America, you are taped to unreality
America, what's behind your plastic surface
America, we are not enemies
America, the cords of memory will swell when touched by the
better angels of
our nature
America, the world is watching
America, you are flourishing, but you're far from god
America, where belonging can sometimes prevent you from learning
America, like a big obstacle, all you have to do is choose
the right path,
take the bumps, and
live through the bruises
America,
look around
America,
things are sadly falling into corruption
America,
ask for an eternal fix
America,
why do u like Britney Spears?
America,
with no child left behind
America,
vandag, donderdag is een schitterende dag
America,
puff tuff!
America,
land of the free people who can't smoke in restaurants
America,
too much!
America,
wo woo wo woooo grrr
America,
let me breathe the booze in your pants
America,
turn off the television
America,
find your life in the streets
America,
please, regime change 2004
America,
never surrender the love in your heart
America,
open 24 hours
America,
gain the world and lose your own soul
America,
let's sit on the couch and watch tv
America,
freedom bound
America,
wake up from your denial of your unsustainable course
America,
always milking everyone's riches in consumer anxiety
America,
that guy's crazy as fuck
America,
my son died for America, thank god
America,
stop the hatred
America,
let's be of one mind
America,
buy your food from someone you can look in the eye
America,
why won't the dinosaurs come back
America,
we're out of gas
America,
dressed for the pregnant, needy, and dying
America,
the road is full of puddles
America,
where one can get milk, fritos, cheese, and twinkies for
an afternoon snack
America,
nobody wants to know
America,
good luck with your bad luck
America,
filled with reward and confusion
America,
someday in the summertime, we'll play in the water fountain
America,
it feels good
America,
promise me that I will wake up smiling
America,
stop talking to me
America,
like yellow on a tree: it's there but they don't see, the
passing eyes do not arise to
see the yellow on the tree
America,
how can I thrive
America,
Discombobulated Displaced Diaspora
America,
it's just a matter of time before this will be my number one
hit single
America,
try not to die for it
America,
I wish I could write a poem where the buffalo roam
America,
the teat of freedom is crusting over
America,
no more war
America,
next and last stop