Shikha Malaviya

America How Great You Are

embarking on a vessel
a greener world
searching for quick change
to sink teeth into
like quicksand

dream scented mango skins
smell of a castaway land
still fresh
and pulpy
if you lick your fingers
they still will taste sweet
and the seed is safe in your pocket
a dormant bed of melodies
unlike 'amazing grace'

whistle me away
whittle me
carve me a map of the new world
sans Columbus

I want to see Africans with big lips
and big wigs
and take big swigs of bitter barley
I want to meet Mormons
and gentle white giants
I want to eat hotdogs with Cotton candy
and ride the El train
I want to watch a baseball game
and kick an oblong football too
I want to be a bleach blonde
And marry a guy named Stu
I want to be 'the one of thems'
The stripes, the stars
The shiny Ford car
Sipping furtively some American dream
And plugging my ears while a local whispers
The S.O.B's an F.O.B

America I want to love you, but you won't let me
And the old country's a tune I can't get outta my head
So who's gonna star in this Opera?
And how is this gonna end?

whistle me away
whittle me
carve me a map of the new world
carve me ...(in the shape of a star)
America, how great you are!