The Real Dream, Poem Example

In the aftermath of change, Monday morning quarterbacks complain

“President Obama has failed!” They say his soul is too small,

And his brain too soft to lead America from war to prosperity.

But the dream lives in every soldier returned from pain,

In every mother, wife, and child who hears the call

Of a loved-one coming home to life, peace, and liberty.

Democracy allows for changes in the nation’s ideals.

The dream is alive in every gay couple who feels

The pride of love and patriotism, and in the sick child

Who now has health care, with every needed paper filed.

Republicans block every law that might help repair the nation.

The right-wing calls the President “illegitimate.”

Ranch-owners and casino magnates stoke a race war

To burn the country down. They want to ration

Freedom and privilege; they want to feed hate

To the people and rip open every scar

Of our blood-soaked history, when white

Was the ruling power, the beacon of goodness and light.

Wrinkled men who feel too small in their suits,

Who despise youth and hate democracy to its roots.

Black, white, red, or brown, one color threatens all…

Green, the color of greed, grows elitism and wealth.

Bribes, buy-outs, and pay-offs undercut the popular will.

The one-percent steal everyone’s income and call

For lower taxes on the rich, a lower standard of health

For the working-class, for the license to spill

Oil or blood to increase their power.

To destabilize the world further with every hour.

One man: elected twice by honest rights

Stands for the people, for the sick and poor, and fights.

Even the Supreme Court tries to block his path.

With money, billionaire’s try to choke the dream.

States ignore the President’s laws and threaten to secede.

The dream sneaks through beneath their racist wrath

Blooms just beneath what is known and seen,

While President Obama’s strategies succeed.

His humility and intelligence are more powerful than they seem

And emerge from his love for the American dream,

Which is built by  ordinary women and men,

And is the path to make our nation strong again.

The change that starts within is alive in the soul,

A dream that soars past criticism and corruption

To save the average citizen from poverty and despair.

The dream that Martin Luther King saw whole

But lay unfinished until the mass eruption

Of popular will changed the feeling in the air

And brought the first African American President

To power, leaning on his wise intent –

To march into the future on dreams made of steel,

And the diversity of colors that make democracy real.