American Beauty

This poem illustrates the contrast between America's fashion industry and war.

                                     


Fashion’s pink pedicured toes prance down a shiny stage
                                              America’s flag scrambles through Iraqi sand

A model walks the runway, wrapped in a fitted star-spangled dress
                                              A uniformed soldier takes a bullet with every march

We admire her, graced with beauty, a painless career
                                              He’s humiliated in third world prison camps

The American rich “ooh and ahh.”
                                              Tears bleed the mouth of this U.S. son.

Passing up filet mignon, Dom Perignon to keep her lack of shape
                                            Denied water, emaciated, in desert’s uncivilized state

Succulent lips, high defined chocolate cheeks
                                            Purple bruises penetrate his dirt calloused skin

Red, white, blue cover her eyes
                                              Bombings, suicides numb his stare

Her effortless strut illuminates America's  pigment
                                              For these colors he kills to live