The Promise
Believe in the promise of America? I learned to brace for its impact,
because its promise is wrought with turbulence,
yet never enough to shake the consciousness
of pilots asleep in the cockpit,
gripping the wheel.
Slumber is the convenience of escapists
who scapegoat American problems onto the unsuspecting underclass,
and each flight ends in a crash.
I cautiously wore my red, white, and blue,
until I smelled gasoline and felt the burn.
So I ripped off my clothes,
draped myself in a black dress and combat boots,
pen in hand,
writing resistance into a cracked Liberty Bell.
These cracks aren't just in Liberty's Bell –
they run through the heart of the nation.
Patriotism is fleeting.
I'm not offered apple pie,
but instead, inherit the rot of an unburied past,
where maggots feast on the Confederacy's remains,
and I'm invited to dine too.
Political greed scorches every path to progress.
The Constitution’s charred remains
fertilize futile soil,
watered by the fervent tears of fighters
who dare to believe in freedom and justice for all.
Democracy dies in dawn’s early light.
Its promises dissolve into despair.
Americans watch,
some with hearts full of cheer,
blinded by illusions of past greatness,
others, paralyzed by fear,
sobered by the brutal weight of reality.
The ghosts of America’s past –
enslaved hands building wealth,
the Trail of Tears soaked in blood,
bombed buses and churches full of God’s children,
Muslims banned and families freezing in hieleras –
Haunt the American dream with night terrors.
For comfort, I wrap myself in a flag
of cautious optimism and prayer,
and join hands with the artists who resist –
the ones who dance with the Harlem Renaissance,
the ones who embody sermons of the Civil Rights Movement,
the ones who paint freedom on streets,
the ones who write ballads of justice.
Together, we are the truth tellers,
defying despair with every stroke,
every word, every creation.
Together, we shape democracy.
We take up the Eagle’s clipped wings,
mending its flight,
and repair the breach of centuries of broken promises.
We must stay ready.
We must stand resolute.
Together, we will remake and define America,
and give everyone promises worth believing in.
“I believe in the promise of America.” Vice President Kamala Harris
