America

America,
You are so bold
and loud
and confident.
Your red, white and blue
shout supremacy
with every stripe
and claim Heaven
with every star.
There, you are.
Big and beautiful
and growing fat.
Won’t you pause a moment?
Hold your breath
and listen?
Listen...
What was that?
That whisper, 
running almost silent,
almost,
but never quite,
the whisper of the Earth,
of the air,
of the sky at night,
its infinite stars rebuking yours...
That still, small voice,
the God you used to know,
who does not shout
but whispers:
“I am here,
in the earth beneath your feet,
in the dance of every year.
I was here before the Spanish,
before the Puritans,
before the Bible Belt
and the Presidents...
And still, I’m here,
I’ll wait.”
America,
won’t you pause?
Won’t you hear?
It’s not too late.

~Ruth Calder Murphy