Will you be content when you see the nation burn?

Comfortable in justice being done and the millions

who are suddenly afraid of you, enough to throw their hands up

in mock surrender, and who know that they could end up

choking on their own ideals.

 

The nation has sizzled under a pressure cooker so great

and for so long that it can be a surprise to the senses

that the loose flying sparks that live in the memory

have somehow not caught alight and burst into

indignant flame since you allowed J.F.K. to die.

 

The land of the free and easy credit has long since gone

and it seems the cornerstone of your much valued democracy

has become diseased and hated by those that love you

Are you comfortable this morning?

Are you ready to believe the lie for another day?

 

If the spark didn’t combust when J.F.K. was pronounced dead

on the day you lost your innocence, then why not

when Dr. King was taken or Bobby Kennedy

or when Nixon was found to be a man of his deeds

or when a bruised and battered man was killed in Los Angeles.

 

I love you America, I have been with you constantly

and yet like a marriage dominated by fear and mistrust

I see in your eyes the belief that this all too will pass,

Like a New York City street blighted by terror, drugs and social unrest

you  would rather see it burn itself clean.

 

Ian D. Hall 2014.