Happy fourth
Is the refrain
That strains itself
Through American cheesecloth
Cough cough
[read: cheese food]
Because it would be rude or
At the very least misconstrued
To confuse the two
While lighting the fuse through
Which the night is illuminated
While our very doom is intimated
Second by second
Species by species
While spouting patriotic feces
In the form of our national religion
Which is not the dove, or a stand-in pigeon
Always the hawk
The predator
And for some reason
We credit her for every goodness that we hold
But the parades grow old
As we continue to harness
The tarnish of empty promises
And enrich the traumas of
Border abuses and all the excuses
Of harm of the refugees who flee
The dangers of home
In search of something better
But what they get is harsh
And the letter of the law
Is smudged illegible
And the judges are hedgible bets
That have been sought and bought
Which is frot with the shame of living down
The legacy of a sound mercy
Instead, devoid of any courtesy
Making mental distortion
A nation out of proportion with itself
But worry not, there are these top-shelf portions
Of fireworks to declare our independence
From jerks who abused the vulnerable
While we’ve excused this new normal
