Trump America's orange crush with fascism
a long held flirtation that has born strange fruit
America born in the name of freedom and slaughtered the Native people
directly or through disease
Land of slavery
Manifest destiny
and Bible bigotry

America that put a man on the moon
ended slavery
gave us Hollywood and Jazz, the internet and poets
stood up in WW1 and WW2
stood up to Stalin
America the refuge for Europe's poor and hungry
Refuge from Hitler

America so full of horror and hope

being, listening,
in the dark, in the quiet
of a new morning;
breathing in and breathing out,
in my mind's eye: a candle