And They Sang God Bless America

They came here uninvited. Set up settlements. Brought slaves.

They labeled the inhabitants of these shores savages

To justify stealing their land.

With their false tongues and their diseases they killed nine savages
Of every ten. There was plenty of land.

Behind the banner of their bible they filled it.

Cram the children of their slaves into prisons and jails

Cram the children of their native population onto ever smaller scraps of land

Blame them for their troubles. For talking up. For talking back.

Demanding rights. And they sing

God Bless America
From shore to shining shore. They sing

God Bless America
As they curse and blame their troubles on the men

That I made gay.

They don’t care about the women much.

The men they strap to trees like honored sacrifices, and they sing

God Bless America
When they should beg
God forgive us for we have sinned.
We always knew, we always should have known

The bible we used like a tool to conquer these lands

The bible we used like a tool to leverage its wealth

The bible we used like a tool to rid ourselves of its native nuisance

The bible we used like a tool to catch and harness and drag the citizens of Africa

Over the sea of Columbus like cattle and spit at like angry dogs

The bible we used to name this place the shining city on a hill

Warned us. Named us.  

The bible we converted into plowshares and guns
Instead of reading it--
May one not be pardoned?--

It told us not to sing.