I Sing The American Song

I sing the American song,

Full-throated, unapologetic

Even as I mistake the words

Even as I forget sometimes

The reasons why I sing

I sing the American song

Faint smells of ale and salty tea

Some verses whispered dangerously

Some shouted in stark defiance 

Blasphemous and brave

Foolhardy and great

I sing the American song

A melody heard in the parlor

Mixing with the cigar smoke and

The smell of excellent brandy

A cappella, the mourning notes

Of broken hearts, broken hands

Drifting over the Master’s fields

I sing the American song

The martial drum beat of soldiers

The blow of the horn, the cry of the fallen

The passionate arguments for the destiny

Of this singular nation, or for the world

This song floating through the acrid smoke

Across the torn and bloody land

Siren’s call to freedom  

I sing the American song

Echoes across steel and glass

Muffled by hustling crowds with averted eyes

The steel legged beggar reaches into his cup

Grabs a quarter, and flips it to me

Salutes, and stands up straight

Sings in quiet harmony

Remembering all the words.

I sing the American song

Infinite accents, origins unknown

Prismatic tones, discordant and indispensable

Clashing and linked, contra and selfsame

The syncopated rhythms melding the

Unfamiliar notes into one defining music

Moving, pervasive, driving the streets

One beat for everyone

I want to sing the American song

A lullaby to the hundred soldiers camped

Laying together on the marble floors of the Capitol

I want to sing it deep and low, homage to their service

Clarity for their confounding, contradictory mission

I want to sing the song soft and sweet

To bring to them rest and dreams

But I dare not let them sleep

I yearn to sing the American song

But others have renamed it, usurped it

Outside the broken windows, the splintered doors

Others who have changed the words, twisted the tune

And stole the flags from their poles to wield in false purpose

They sing their own corrupted version of the hymn

Demanding adoption of their mis-formed lyrics

Replacing country with identity

 I will sing the American song

One voice in a chorus of the millions

We will sing full-throated and unapologetic

Remembering all of the words, all of the notes

The terrible and the sublime, the births and the deaths

We will remember, and together sing out loud

Drown out the imposters poised at the gates

Resuming the true American composition

Always unfinished, always rewritten

Always and ever our own