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/