I remember the bicentennial.
Tall ships sailing into New York
and Boston. Fireworks lighting
up Lady Liberty.

I had just started college then.
I drank up the glory hallelujah
never thought of the stories they
were leaving out.

The original sins of slavery,
of the obliteration of native
peoples. Of the cage match game
of pitting the second generation 

citizens against the newest 
newcomers. I never applied its
lessons to my ancestors who,
in their first generations,

died in the civil war, or fatally
polluted their lungs
in Pennsylvania coal mines.
and now it’s America 250

and according to those
in power, if your ancestors 
didn’t fight in the Revolution,
you don’t belong here.