O Say Can You See


O say, can you see --
                well gosh, yes, I can --
by the dawn's early light,
                what our masters have planned?
What so proudly we hailed
                when they sold it before:
by the twilight's last gleaming
                we'll be marching to war.

Those broad stripes and bright stars
                (now reduced to a brand)
through the perilous night
                decorated the land.
O'er the ramparts we watch,
                and on everyone's car --
so gallantly streaming --
                they guide us to war.

And the rockets' red glare
                (severed arms, severed heads),
the bombs bursting in air
                (and the fly-covered dead),
give proof through the night
                of imperial might,
that Our Flag is Still There
                and our Masters are Right.

O say does that star-spangled
                corporatocracy's
banner still wave
                over hackneyed hypocrisy?

O'er the land of the "free" --
                its ambitions unmasked --
and the home of the "brave"?
                Hush: it's treason to ask.


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De Clarke