A Cleveland Parody

This was created for the Ditalini Press as a song parody.

I mean no disrespect to the beautiful anthem "America, My Country Tis of Thee." Having said that, I have lived in Cleveland and become part of the urban flight mania. I thought I might use the beauty of this anthem to contrast the ugliness that has become Cleveland.

Cleveland Community
Sweet land of poverty
Of thee I curse.
Where innocents have died,
And there's no longer pride.
Where we are locked inside
This concrete hearse.

My neighborhood in blight
We bear the renters plight,
Thy name I hate.
Land of the foreclosure
Home to the sick and poor
In which there seems no cure
For our sad fate.

Where no one seems to care
When rap pollutes the air
All through the night.
And we are kept awake
By gunfire and by hate
Until we all partake
Of Urban Flight.