America, Laid Bare

America, Laid Bare

                                                     

Metropolises pressed together

on top of what once was open farm land.

Staggering heights of buildings,

built vertically from necessity,

now blocking out the sun.

Trash covered mountains,

the result of impatient climbers

in their pursuit of the perfect photo op,

not for a love of nature,

but for the sake of arrogant exhibition.

West Coast orchards,

decimated,

by drought and blight.



Our ancestors dreamt

of a great freedom loving nation

across once uncharted land.

America,

lawful, honest, and virtuous,

its citizens must be,

to ensure safe self-governing.



Heroes ensuring a chance of life,

and liberty for all,

by their own sacrifices,

willing to give all that they had,

including their own lives,

which those they protected remembered with respect.

They still do give,

yet fewer show respect.

A Nation allowing wealth to grow

for all who sought it for the right reasons, 

gold refined.



A country with endless limits of potential,

once built up for themselves, others, and the children of the future.

Today replaced with self-centeredness,

and immediate gratification.

The white city’s gleam,

is replaced with cracked and broken

sidewalks, streets, and edifices.

Misery now walks these avenues,

replete with despair and hopelessness,

lachrymose conditions of the masses.



America,

mow controlled by

an oligarchic press

that worships divisiveness

over brotherhood.

What’s good still left,

trapped within the many,

who’re exposed to our now dull, refuse filled shores and deserts.






Linda Imbler

Examples of Linda’s poetry and a listing of publications can be found at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com.  When not writing, Linda is an avid reader, classical guitar player, and a practitioner of both Yoga and Tai Chi.  In, addition, she helps her husband, a Luthier, build acoustic guitars.  Linda enjoys her 200-gallon saltwater reef tank wherein resides her almost 20 year old yellow tang.  A retired teacher, she began writing in earnest in January, 2015. Linda’s self published poetry collections include “Big Questions, Little Sleep,”  “Lost and Found,”  and “Red Is The Sunrise.”  She has two e-books published by Soma Publishing; “The Sea’s Secret Song,” and “Pairings,” a hybrid ebook of short fiction and poetry.  Her third Soma collection, “That Fifth Element” will be published in late September.  In addition, Linda is currently writing lots of poems inspired by her recent trip to Nashville, Tennessee.