Our Nation

I’m staring off into space and I don’t know why I even care

Nothing seems right and everything sucks

This poetry sucks too

But who cares

I don’t

Because there is no reason to care

Because there is nothing left to care about

The hurricane came and left

But the destruction is still here all around me

My family and I barely scraped through it

Unlike so many others

I can’t imagine why something like this is breathtaking

But one hardly knows how much there is to lose

Until you have lost it all

Supposedly hardships bring people together, but all I have seen is greed, violence, and the need for self-preservation

Nothing brought this nation together

Not even the destruction of entire cities and states

Not even the destruction of September 11

Well, at least not the way it should have

It should have made this country turn and look at itself

And say what can I do to help my fellow Americans

But all people could do was cry, and scream for loved ones

Not that that is a bad thing, but we should be crying for all those lost

There is nothing that can hold this nation together

Long enough to get us back on our feet

And defeat the enemy that attacked us from the inside out

What is happening to us as a nation?

We are slowly decomposing, and the strength that we once had is fading

The power that we imposed on other nations, creating new strength in others

The soldiers that look to us for support

Are now lacking in that

Because we as a nation have decided to turn our backs on them

They need us, and all we can talk about is how much we need to stop the war

We demoralize everything that they have fought for in these long years and we strip them of the purpose that they felt that they had

How can this happen to a nation so young?

We feel so old, but we are still as immature as five-year-olds are

At least the men and women at arms, know why they lay their life on the line

While we sit back and watch, and criticize

At least they have grown up trying to set an example for us, to show us the way

Yet nothing seems to show us the light

We need an Enlightenment

-Ashley Issacs