Cedrus Dreux

Can You Wish Upon These Stars?

(Based on The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key)

Oh how do you feel, by the harsh light of day,
Do you long for your pride from the shadows of childhood?
All the bunting and glitz in the freedom display
Was exciting and bright and a bastion for all good
And the fireworks went boom, and the sparklers went zoom
And smoke bombs burst out into colorful plume
You lay on the grass gazing up into the gleaming sky
And believed that we were great, that we were the good guys.
 
Then you had to grow up and you lost all your zeal.
You’ve forgotten your love for American splendor.
For you’ve found out the cost of a terrible deal;
That on slavery’s back, we became a contender.
The might of the hour; A world superpower.
We roam o’r the earth seeking wealth to devour
Drones striking down people who stand in our way
Be they EMTs at work or children at play.
 
How can you have faith in a country so bleak,
That it values its guns o’er the lives of its children?
That refuses to help its own hungry and weak;
 And murders its own sons for having the wrong skin.
 
Where black lives don’t matter and pundits are gladder
When coppers use gas, making protestors scatter.
And the lord god above declares that you cannot be a queer
Or at least don’t go outside during election year.
 
So, do you have some hope for the stripes and the stars?
Or is poverty’s grasp all that’s keeping you static?
If you had means to flee, would this day be the last
Of your miserable days in the homeland traumatic?
 
Or would you stay and fight for a future that’s bright?
For bread and for roses? For ethical rights?
Do you think our star spangled banner could one day rise
O’er the land of the just and the home of the wise?