Maybe America is more than this

Maybe America is more than this. They say
political poems are the hardest to write, and so
here I am, failing at one. Even so,
it’s being written: maybe America
is more than this, or maybe it can be
more than this lie, this little picture-show
where we pretend we’re “we”, united for
a moment. I don’t know. I want to say
a pithy phrase that’s not been said; somehow,
with a magic word, fix everything once
and finally: a hero’s complex, sure,
but that’s where I’m at. I simply don’t know
how to write this without being a dunce.
I don’t know how to make America more.