Summary

It's about growing up as a Native American in a predominately Caucasian community and being told I don't belong in the country I was born in for such petty things like my skin tone. I grew up around all white people and developed their culture while having none of my own.

I’m trying my best to be something I wasn’t born to be

I’ll fall asleep and try to believe

Go ahead and keep your American Dream

You can take what you want from me

Get me to fake an identity

Go ahead and keep your American Dream

I can’t speak, I can’t think

About anything other than the words you taught me

I’m a machine

A manufactured beast

With no self-sufficiency

Feathers in my hair blow away as quick as everything I could be

Slowly mold me into an American Dream

I can’t breathe

I’m down on my knees

While you walk all over my ancestry

I’ve been writing American Dreams

And sending them off to sea

So the next generation can possibly learn from me

This is not what we were meant to be

While everything burns away with bright orange gleams

Hopefully we can restart everything

Be the new American Dream

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Burke High School Poetry Study

Poetry Study is an elective class in which students read and write poetry.

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