The American Nightmare

The American nightmare
Where children are murdered in their classrooms
While the police wait outside
Where black and brown people are murdered in broad daylight
by police pointing guns at their backs and up-stretched arms
Where women are forced to birth children they cannot raise
Mother and child fall deeper into chasms of inescapable poverty
While rich white politicians buy stocks and send dick pics

The American nightmare
Where uneducated country bumpkins know more than doctors
And podcasters’ opinions outweigh decades of scientific research
Where your beloved president told you COVID wasn’t real
And now your dad/husband/son/daughter/mother/grandmother/life partner/bread winner/entire universe/light of your life
Is dead from that fake news virus

The American nightmare
Where Christianity reigns supreme
But someone forgot to mention that our laws violate most of Christ’s teachings
Where we no longer value human life 
Except between the times of conception and birth
Where we link health insurance to employment
We leave our elderly to waste away in decrepit nursing homes
We leave our veterans homeless on the street
We reject immigrants unless they resemble
Hitler’s ideal human race

The American nightmare
Where religious freedom only applies if you are one religion
Where freedom of speech only applies if you are not speaking 
About race or biology
Where you are safer purchasing a gun than sending your child to school
Where “Jesus Guns Babies” political yard signs abound

The American nightmare
Where forest fires and hurricanes and floods and tornadoes and blizzards
Batter this country and its people
But clean energy isn’t lucrative (un-American)
Caring about the planet is laughable when we 
Don’t blink twice when human life is lost

The American nightmare
Where politicians police women’s bodies
But police balk at protecting the innocent
Armed guards line up to intimidate peaceful protestors
While rolling out the red carpet for insurrectionists 
Where education, nutrition, and health care are underfunded
But not breaking out of the cycle of poverty is a moral failing

We will all slowly burn to death in this hell
And some of your souls will burn in eternity
For your part in all of this.