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Beautiful Country

Beautiful Country
a poem by Yunseo Chung

Beautiful Country,

the tears have

overflowed

the melting pot of your people.

They are crying

blood -

dark, suffocating blood

spilled on your earth.

Why do you bring them here

only to choke them?

Do you enjoy

the death

of their dreams?


Beautiful Country,

my grandmother misses me.

I have not seen her

in

eleven

long

years.

Please,

let me go home.

I have loved you

for so long.

Let me love her

before she goes.

Why are you so

selfish?


Beautiful Country,

you are a wicked,

wicked thing,

Have you forgotten those who smiled upon you

so kindly?

They laid themselves at your feet

and you kicked them

into history.


Beautiful Country,

I wanted to find a home in you

so,

so badly.

I stretched my eyes wide

to take in your beauty

but ended up blind.

I’m laying on the sidewalk,

bleeding around myself


and you won’t come save me.


I hoped you would.


I hoped you would.


Instead,

every day,

you show me my grandmother

on the TV screen.

She dies

in a million different ways,

in a million different cities,

and I

never

get to say goodbye.


When you need someone to blame for the deaths,

you will turn to me.


Who, then,

will take responsibility for those

you have killed?


Beautiful Country,

you were once everything,

everything I wanted.


But now, you are just

the United States

of an America

that does not open

its doors

for me.


- Yunseo Chung


Cover Photo Source: https://thomaskinkade.com/shop/limited-edition-art/cityscapes/americas-pride-limited-edition-art/

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