An American I Am
Lawrence S. Pertillar 1947 (Connecticut)
As an American.
Citizen of The United States.
I was not born to discriminate.
Prepared to accept others to hate.
I had been taught to teach,
To walk and speak...
The language I learned to do it correctly.
With a doing to compete,
In races to begin.
Whether or not I finished to win them.
As I grew older,
I was made to notice the color of my skin.
With this compared to others.
To hear it heard me referred,
As 'those, They and repeatedly 'them'.
And today as I age,
To obtain various skills and experiences.
Earned to not be given.
I still remain an American citizen.
Proud to be black and identified as that.
Knowing the fact of it.
From head to toe and carried on my back.
I have become more aware.
And conscious to realize,
United we all are together to share...
A doing to segregate,
Ourselves away from each other.
In a place we all call The United States.
Yet...
Prove we have done,
To discriminate and hate.
Although 'great' we claim is America.
Done to reflect,
The best of what to us has been taught!
An American, I am.
And you?
Are who to prove the doing of what?
A better citizen?
Or...
A better reflection of an image,
To fiction and delude...
An America that should be.
Yet refuse to accept,
The truth and reality as is!
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Written on October 14, 2023
Submitted by lpahtillah on October 14, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 4 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCCXXDXEF GEXXF XHAAXXX IXICGBXACXXX XXXAXXXDXH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,239 |
Words | 281 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 5, 7, 12, 10 |
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"An American I Am" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/171281/an-american-i-am>.
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