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Sep 09
poem challenge: 9/11/21
Nightheart

An American prayer

This is an American prayer. 
This is a mother lifting her child onto her fingertips. 
This is our planes leaving. 
This is a blurry green shot of a soldier. 
This is a history book. 
This is a list of my sins. 
This is everything we have done wrong and everything we haven’t done wrong. 
the things we didn’t do we still got wrong. 
This is two hundred people at last count. 
This is the bullet in the head of a female judge. 
This is my comfortable full size bed. 
This is American, so it cannot be my prayer. 
This is my crop tops and short shorts. 
This is guns we gave away and can’t get back. 
This is a rebel leader writing an op-ed.
This is blood-stained sewer water. 
this should not be an American prayer, but it is. 
we work everyone into our twisted salvation, don't we? 
This is crying in the dark. 
This is the flames that eat lists of female students. 
This is the ash of forbidden credentials. 
This is thirteen soldiers. 
This is ninety civilians. 
This is another ten civilians. 
This is the list of the dead. 
This is the robot that can kill people. 
there is fire raining down from the heavens, 
but this time we have decided where Sodom and Gomorrah are. 
This is the time to go. 
This is the time to stay. 
This is before I was born and after I die. 
This is the twin towers crashing. 
This is a plane in a field somewhere. 
This is the hate I inherited in the womb. 
This is the plastic chair I'm sitting on in a school. 
This is the money lining the pockets of politicians.
This is chairs without women in them, 
This is a raft with only women on it. 
This is people in camouflage shooting at the sky. 
This is our land, our land, where blood runs from the eyes.
This is a god, those poor people over there.
This is hindsight and foresight that are both 20/20, but failed to meet in the middle somewhere. 
This is the taste of salt running down my face, 
This is a no money, no jobs. 
This is an empty promise. 
This is an answer with no question, 
This is a question with no answer.
This is an American prayer.
This is American, so it is interference, 
This is all the people’s fears,
This is not our problem.
This is whips against angry faces.
This is a waking nightmare. 
This is the two weeks before people get bored. 
This is the protests and these are the maces. 
This is our planes leaving,
This is our planes leaving,
This is our planes leaving. 
This is a list of all of our sins. 
God, this is an American prayer. 
Please put an end to American prayers.
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Posted: 09.09.21
About the Author: Nightheart
"remember, we are infinite"
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Discussion

Comments

  1. liebeslied
    Sep 11, 2021

    I loved reading this - I think the repetition adds an impassioned and heartfelt style. This is really powerful.

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