The Beautiful

a coke and a smoke as we roam the grey prarie.
what sentiment do I want to express at the end of our world,
a terriffic excitement as we prepare to exit america.
its many eyes america the hydra the milky stuffed beast the roast
beef sandwich of america.
i have no doubt we created it.
the absent truckers stitching the states together,
the moving monuments of this country. we destroy a little bit of
everything we pass.
the bomb tucked dearly into farm land.
rest stops, missing but a simple bolt of certain rage.
the wake of america at our tail oh we could kill it, couldn't we.
america what shitty parents you were.
we have to run away again and again we keep coming back to see if you missed us
but you didn't even know we were gone.
we write tell all books about our rotten childhoods
the bad food you fed us the coat hanger beatings
can i process my bad relationship with america,
can we go to couple's counseling
can we sit down and talk about all this bad energy.
oh america i love you i just want to go on a date with you
and you won't even give me the time of day
stuck up bitch-- think you're too good for me
america i could have anyone
canada london amsterdam is in love with me
but it's you i want america. what could i do to impress you
i could write you an anthem but you have so many
fuck you america you're just so emotionally unavailable
you act like it's everyone else's fault you're just a really bad
communicator and you have serious boundary issues.
i think you're really fucked up america
i think you've got a lot of problems.
i keep getting all these hang-up calls i know it's you america you better cut the shit
i'm getting a restraining order. if america comes within 25 feet of me
i'm throwing her ass in jail how do you like that america?
you can dish it out but you really can't take it america
you're such a baby we've been together all these years and you still
won't let me call you girlfriend
you act like it doesn't mean anything.
i'm over it america i think you're really self-loathing
you know i made you what you are today i think you forget about
that well you can just forget about everything america
you can just forget the whole thing
i'm going home

Michelle Tea

Happy National Poetry Month, all youall in the States. I thought this would be an appropriate poem to start with. It's the only thing of Michelle Tea's I've read, found it after endless google searching, someday, someday when I'm independantly wealthy and have access to radical dyke indie media I'll buy up all her stuff. I love how it describes the idea of patriotism and national identity as a fucked up lesbian affair. I love her description of the desolate midwest, lonely highways and truck stops--sounds about right to me. Somehow Tea takes all that media jargon and relationship psychobabble and turns it around, makes it actually express something true, instead of obfuscating. I like how petulant and bitchy it is. Growing up with the American Dream and The Constitution's Preamble, "We the people", and the Declaration and My Country 'Tis of Thee, and then you grow up and realize you've been had; it's just like after you break up, you look at this person you used to be crazy about and you think, "Who the hell are you? Where did you come from?? What did you do with the person I loved?" I love the queer lineage behind this poem, Allen Ginsburg's "America", and of course, our unofficial anthem, "America the Beautiful", actually a kind of nice poem that everybody doesn't know was written by a dyke. Michelle Tea rocks. Plus, she's really cute.