Introducing: a poem about American immigration.

CHAUVINISM

Thirteen stripes and fifty stars shine bright,
Scintillating, above thousands, millions of people.
In their thirst, they devour that golden radiance, cheeks
Flushed and eyes shining
In unison, they stretch their arms up, as if
Their appeals will reach that
Impersonation of God above.

Their heads balloon with whispered opportunity
Their hands caress an invisible future, one soft
As velvet pillows, luminous as the lights of Broadway.

They kiss their dreams on both cheeks,
Send them off for judgement, see if those gleaming stars will smile
Upon their mottled skin and accented English
Crimped hair, grime under their nails
They stand, naked in their aspirations
Under the scorching eyes of Lady Liberty.

Many, she deems dangerous
Diseased, deficient, or detrimental
Many, she frowns upon their strange inflections,
Shudders at their menacing hometowns
Many, she pops their dreams,
Bursting them with a needle as
Easily as snapping
A branch under a callous heel.

Those who pass her test
The ones most fit, the most elect,
Make the lonely trek across a desecrated land,
Hair, nails, eyes
Sheened with disillusion
Those thirteen stripes and fifty stars
Shining above them, not quite as dazzling as once before.

Stumbling to that golden door, they are surrounded by
Whispers of those before, hushed voices that murmur a mantra
Over and over,
Like a prayer they will soon believe­–

America, the land of the free, and the
Home of the brave.