The Star Spangled Banner?



(Original lyrics Sept. 20, 1814 by Francis Scott Key)


5/28/2004 by Connie Wilson



Jose, can you see? By Iraq's early light

What so sadly we hail, as our country's last gleaming.

In days of yore in our land, we would give folks a hand,

We would help feed and teach.

Our grasp then matched our reach.

Oh, the things that we did, were to share,…. not be hid,

We could hold up our heads; there weren't thousands left dead.

O say, does our Star Spangled Banner still stand….

For the free and the brave and a democratic land?



On the shore, dimly seen, lay the enemy foes.

While the foe's haughty chief, in isolation reposed.

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering ash,

As it fitfully blew, now concealed, now disclosed?

Now it catches the gleam of the plane's dipping wings.

The full horror displayed on the world's TV screens.

Our Star Spangled Banner: Oh, long may it wave!

But I fear for our land of the free and the brave.



Oh, where is that group, which would formerly swear,

'Gainst the havoc of war and 'gainst battle's confusion?

Defending country and home, not for oil and dissolution.

Their blood has been shed in foul footstep's pollution.

No refuge did save Iraq's evil leaders and slaves,

From the terror, misdirected, of that flight; or the gloom of the grave.

And our Star Spangled Banner: Oh, long may it wave!

But I fear for the land of the free and the brave.



Oh! Thus be it ever that freemen shall stand

In defense of their loved homes, NOT Iraq's desolation!

Cursed with violence and graft; claims of a heaven-rescued land…

When the powers-that-be dealt a very different hand.

They've mislead us all now, with revenge and with greed,

A mockery is made of our longstanding creed:

If our motto remains, “In God is our trust.”

Then restore our country's honor

In November's voting thrust.