Carl Stevens' Poem: Fourth Of July

There are three colors that paint me and you,

Those three colors are red white and blue,

The stars and stripes that weave us together,

A fabric intact through challenging weather,

From the waters of Maine to the hills of Dakota,

From Delaware, Kansas to Minnesota,

From the sun of L.A. to the storms of Nebraska,

From the slots of Vegas to the ice of Alaska,

From the Brooklyn Bridge to the Grand Coolee Dam,

There's bright innovation across this land.

We build houses, inventions...each day we plant seeds,

We fertilize gardens and scrape out the weeds,

We water the flowers of genius each day:

You've got an idea: then just walk this way,

Cuz we have the freedom to think and to do,

To put sweat into dreams, and to see them come true.

Sure we'll argue 'bout what's right or wrong,

Get mad at a particular political song,

Democrats, Republicans yell up at the sky

And declare the stupidity of the "other guy."

Here's why this land is the land of a dream:

We're all very free yell and to scream:

To let fly opinions in society's breeze,

Because the U.S. is the land of the free.

So today as we stand under a July 4th umbrella

Let's pause and respect the other fella:

Who's teaching a class or driving a truck,

Mending a wound or shoveling muck...

We share those three colors, we share this free soul:

For these parts of America are as great as the whole.

In:
• Carl Stevens