Other American Poems Revised by the Trump Administration

Originally published on Momocrats.com, Aug. 14, 2019

Yesterday on CNN, “the acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services in a new interview revised the iconic American poem on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal to suggest that only immigrants who can “stand on their own two feet” are welcome in the United States.” 

But that’s not the only classic verse getting a 21st century update from the current administration:

Trees

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree –
And only God can help that tree
If it grows on environmentally unprotected land.

I Hear America Singing

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
But all in English and at least one by A$AP Rocky.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

He said to his friend,—“If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,—
One if by land, and two if by sea;
Three if by domestic airport.”

Mending Wall

He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours,
But nobody builds walls better than me!”

American Heartbreak

I am the American heartbreak—
Rock on which Freedom
Stumps its toe—
The great mistake
That Jamestown
Made long ago
Although really there were
Very fine people on both sides.

My Life had Stood – A Loaded Gun

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –
In Corners – till a Day
The Owner passed – identified –
And carried Me away –
Because Gun and Magazine bans
Are a Total Failure –

(with apologies to Joyce Kilmer, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and Emily Dickinson)