The poem featured below was written by a student in WITS writer David Ciminello’s residency at Franklin High School in the fall of 2020 and was published in the 2020-21 Literary Arts Writers in the Schools anthology, Curiosity in Ones and Zeros.

The American Fantasy

by Madeline Diaz

We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
A union with equity
Where no divides will destroy
Relationships
Progress is a train into the future
To a real-life American dream

A union with sticky peach juice dribbling down your chin
Hot dogs and sparklers
Meaty ribs and warm mac and cheese 
Carousel rides and ferry go wheels 
They wink at you as you roll past them 

It’s a country with a past forgotten 
A history that doesn’t matter
No blood on our hands
But past can’t be re-written

In the end America is just a place 
But often forgotten are
the humans that call this place home 
Divided people just striving 
to forge a union with purpose 

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