By David Roth
© 24 March, 2004
A salt laden trickle runs course down my face,
Distraught by the burgeoning hate and disgrace,
Mid anger and hatred I offer a prayer,
To memories caught stark in the Rocket’s Red Glare.
There once was a time when this nation stood proud,
When Love of the Red, White and Blue echoed long; echoed loud,
When the Stars and the Stripes were a symbol of care,
And we stood arm in arm in the Rocket’s Red Glare.
A once proud republic sought by nations as friend,
Who welcomed the immigrant’s diverse aplomb,
Now stands in the backwash of terror’s despair
And dims the proud glow of the Rocket’s Red Glare.
Oh, where went the nation once so proud to be
The land of the brave and the home of the free,
That welcomed the needy with arms filled with care
To grow in the light of the Rocket’s Red glare?
Awake, Mighty Nation, before it’s too late,
Discard petty politics e’re it’s too late,
And be once again what the Founders forswear,
Blazing proud in the bursting bright Rocket’s Red Glare!
