America, we are the dead.
Let your soldiers come.
Whoever kills a man, let him resurrect him.
We are the drowned ones, dear lady. 140
We are the drowned.
Let the water come.POEM SUMMARYEach section of ‘‘America, America’’ is set off by
the poem’s refrain, a slight variation on the last
lines of the song ‘‘God Bless America.’’
Section 1
The first section begins with the poem’s refrain
and then describes the leadership of a general in
command of Nuqrat al-Salman, a notorious
prison in the Iraqi desert. The speaker claims
that military generals interpret the landscape as
either forts (if they rise) or battlefields (if they are
flat). The speaker then boldly declares the igno-
rance of such a general.
The speaker’s attention then shifts toLibera-
tion, a French newspaper. He describes the front
page as displaying an Iraqi bomb victim, while
the media trucks are at a safe distance. The
speaker declares that the neutron bomb is intelli-
gent enough to distinguish between forms of ego.
Section 2
The second section begins with the refrain and
then offers the words to a blues song. Based on
the reference to the Californian city of Sacra-
mento, the singer is understood to be American.
His worries relate to walking to Sacramento to
see his girl. The singer seems to reassure a
stranger that there is nothing to fear in this
land, but he then reiterates the stranger’s fear
at the end of the stanza.
Section 3
The speaker now tells the reader all of the Amer-
ican things that he loves, just as his readers (or
other Americans) love. He mentions jeans,
American music, New Orleans, Mark Twain,
and Abraham Lincoln. He refers to Treasure
Island, a renowned adventure novel by Robert
Louis Stevenson. Stevenson was Scottish, and
the novel is in the canon of English literature.
After listing the things that he loves, the
speaker lets the reader know that he is not an
American. He then asks if the fact that he is not
American is reason enough to send a bomber to
destroy him. His point may be that he and Amer-
icans are not so different at a human, or individ-
ual, level, but their differences in nationality
seem to be all that is required to bring on military
hostility. He adds that he does not need oil,
America, or American political parties, asking
that the bomber leave his humble home alone.
The speaker says that he does not need the
Golden Gate Bridge or city skyscrapers or New
York City, all symbols of the bustling accom-
plishment of urban America. He asks why the
American soldiers came heavily armed to other-
wise peaceful villages and hopes to be left alone.
He tells the soldier to take back his missiles and
aircraft because he (the speaker) is not an enemy.Section 4
After the refrain, the speaker again begins a dia-
logue of sorts with America. This time, he pro-
poses a series of trades. In each case, the speaker
tells America to take away something destructive
that has been imported into Iraqi culture (like
cigarettes and Bibles). In return, the Americans
are to give things that help nourish Iraqi society
(like potatoes, vaccines, and paper for poetry to
insult Americans). He instructs America to take
what it does not already have and to let the
speaker’s people take what is already theirs. In
one line, the speaker asks for Abraham Lincoln
or nobody at all. In the context of the poem, the
speaker is asking for a leader seeking to provide
unity and freedom rather than a dictator like
Hussein—or, perhaps, rather than the soldiers
described in the previous section.
The speaker’s attention then turns to the
landscape and cityscape. He sees Damascus
spinning and then sinking into oblivion. The
speaker then turns to his own memories of
Basra and the mosque there. He describes a ser-
ies of sense memories, including things he saw,
touched, and heard. After describing natural
elements, he recalls a memory of political acti-
vism. The section concludes with simple state-
ments about trees dying after being beaten and
dizzied, imagery that recalls the description of
Damascus spinning away to nothing.Section 5
In the last section, the speaker boldly addresses
America. He says that he and his people are not
hostages and that the American military is not
God’s army. He then iterates that he and hisAmerica, America