american groupthink and apple pie
it happened
at school pep rallies mostly
or on the school bus
going to the football game
the dozens
or the hundreds of them breaking into
school chants
or battle cries
then usa! usa! usa!
sounding like ravenous nazis on the prowl
you could only look around
in fear and wonder
at their red faces
the spittle coming out of their mouths
their fists moving like hammers
the blind capitulation
to conformity
american groupthink and apple pie
as they chanted the same doggerel
over and over again
like it was coming from their hearts
so it is no wonder
to see them all now as adults
pasty-faced and flabby
fat from the heartland
the mendacity of exceptionalism on stolen land
still chanting
but this time for crooked politicians
still caught up
in the same stupid orthodoxy
that has kept them
shackled to the many
the very blood and soil
that has been strangling
the essence of their humanity
since birth.
--John Grochalski
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