I SEE AMERICA SHIFTING — A CURRENT RESPONSE TO I HEAR AMERICA SINGING BY WALT WHITMAN

I see America shifting,
Slowly but visibly so.
I watch the single parent
raise a child on their own.

Where should stand tall a family
now broken pieces lay,
I see America shifting
further still away.

I watch American immigrants
endure treatment that is cruel.
I watch a troubled teenager
bring his fathers gun to school.

I watch the drunken husband
lay hands upon his bride,
and the teen in high-school bullied
to the point of suicide.

Young men and women fight
in avoidable war,
While religions fight and bicker
though peace is claimed their core.

Poverty is crippling
the base we use to stand,
and the lack of jobs just leaves us
wandering lost with hats in hand.

America is shifting,
and great things she's truly seen.
She witnessed imagination and ingenuity,
the ages of oil and machines.

She claimed her share of victories
in the days that she was young,
but now she's getting older
and fewer battles can be won.

So America has shifted,
yet we march still to her drum.
But the song America sang,
is now just a quiet hum.