Poetry

Nitish Meena photo

By

Mike Griffith

My Country

What makes my country good,

what makes my country great

is a hope for a better tomorrow,

a dream of a near-divine fate.

What makes Americans good,

what keeps us all alive

are not lies but truths,

truths that help us thrive.

What makes this land my land,

and what makes this land yours

is what we share, not what we take,

it’s how we live together, not settle old scores.

What makes my country good,

what makes my country great

is not rhetoric or promises,

it’s acceptance, not hate.

Growth

You run, run, Contrary, run from the garden –

Go!

Grow, grow, how did your garden grow?

No nasturtium, no nightshade;

passive posies and pale flaccid lilies, yes,

and the apple tree with its drooped fruit and blossoms.

You walk, walk over to the edge –

look back only once, for twice

and you’d never find the strength to leave.

Then you run, run Contrary,

run away, leave.

Leaves rustle and flutter by, leaf

leave now, by and bye.

Find your new spot,

plant your new garden –

plant there among the bones and shale.

First year fallow crops,

ashy fruits, hollow hopes –

but weed out the bones,

work the shale to soil,

bleed, bleed life into that soil.

Work until you grow new life,

until you plant, root,

grow less contrary and

run no more.

Mike Griffith

Michael Griffith began writing poetry to help his mind and spirit become healthy as his body recovered from a life-changing injury. His works have recently appeared both online and in print in The Good Men Project, the Starving Poets Tour anthology book, Dual Coast Poetry, Degenerate Literature, NY Literary Magazine, and Wild Words. He teaches and resides near Princeton, NJ.