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The Greatest Country in the World
POEM BY DELANEY MUTCHLER
Every 4th of July,
I nibble on a sugar cookie.
You know the ones Walmart sells,
the fluffy, crumbly ones with
the thick frosting and rainbow sprinkles?
My family teases me because
my lips are dyed blue.
I’ve been colonized, conditioned,
clapping when the fireworks explode,
wearing an American flag tank top, an
American flag hair bow,
American flag converse,
red face paint,
blue overalls,
celebrating with white friends and white family
with hot dogs and burgers on white buns.
Somewhere a black man soaks in a pool of his own blood—red
a fitting color for the holiday.
The cop that murdered him—white
just like our Stars and Stripes.
You know
the ones you criticized a black man for kneeling in front of.
I wonder
if fireworks and gunshots sounded the same to him.
The black man’s lips were icy blue;
I wonder
if he too loved those sugar cookies.
Delaney Mutchler is a senior pursuing degrees in Creative Writing and Secondary English Education. She is humbled to be getting published in Thread for the second year in a row, and looks back proudly on the years she’s spent refining her craft in order to produce poetry worth publishing. In August 2021, Delaney will teach high school English, where she hopes to instill her love for writing within her students.
Header Image by Jake Nackos (Unsplash)