Flag of Distress/What to a Migrant Child is July 4th?

by Tai Amri Spann-Ryan

Mother forgive us

When we know exactly what we do

Take your darker children

And lock them in dungeons of greed

Make mourners of their mothers

Drown their fathers in rivers of freedom

Force 10 year olds to raise babies

And deny them methods to heal

When you look at the trail that we’ve walked

Awaken to the pain we have wrought

The only logical solution

Is to repair legacies of despair

But there’s a crown that sits on oppression

Opium dens for hatred to incubate

Soldiers manufacturing consent

And stars that blind with blockbusters

So what to an imprisoned migrant child

Is the 4th of July?

It’s not the rocket’s red glare

It’s the ripping of the sinews of the heart

Torn from mama

Not the flag of freedom

But the chainlinked fence

The toilet bowl drinking fountain

Not the rainbowed produce aisle

But the spoiled bologna

Not a day to spend with loved ones

But straw on a desert floor

We don’t need another celebration

We need the cold shock of sobriety

Don’t need to watch another show

Need to hear influenza’d cries for family

Don’t need to read POTUS tweets

Need to pay the sins of our forefathers

Don’t need infighting

Need solutions already

And when we feel that our problems are “the worst”

We need to remember that there’s a child

Who followed a dream

Where they saw their father drowned

Where they can’t soothe their mother’s tears

And where men with guns keep them whispering

Mother forgive us