Bob Hicok

USA USA

I am and no one is America.
Gas station fireworks and methane
in your water is America. Getting shot
for being the same color
as your shadow is America. Rainbows
I have stood at the end of
kissing my wife in America
is America. I cannot afford
my heart attack is America.
I will go to Belgium
for my heart attack is America.
Slavery is America. A black president
is America. Guns in Starbucks
because coffee is hot
and dangerous is America.
Where the hardon of wealth
meets the wetdream
of lax oversight is America.
The smell of freshly mown suburbs
is America. Men racing drag cars
in drag is America. Women
merely renting their wombs
is America. Is America possible
in America? I am just back
from Detroit is America. The magic border
between Grosse Pointe and Detroit
is America. Driving through a corpse
on one side and Eden on the other
is America. Literally a line
of wealth’s demarcation
is America. Crossing it
is nearly inconceivable
is America. Wanting to
is more than baseball
or hula hoops or the vampire
of TV America. Is America a place
you have been to lately
America? Let’s get in a car
and drive across America
together, America, singing this land
is your conundrum, this land
is my conundrum, this land
was made to be forever better
than it is is America

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