This Land's Not Your Land

by Elvis McGonagall

Wednesday 8th April 2009 4:06 pm (first posted 1st July 2009)

This month's poem was chosen by Jeremy Page who says of it, "There are so many things I admire about this poem: I love its energy, its verve, the force with which it rants at you from the page. But above all, I love the devastating wit and the effectiveness with which it lands blow after blow on its oh-so-deserving targets."

Find out more about Elvis and his work at http://www.writeoutloud.net/poets/elvismcgonagall

This Land's Not Your Land: A Republican Party Protest Song By A Global Village Idiot Called Backwoodsy Guthrie

This land's not your land, this land is our land
From Columbus, Ohio to the Florida swampland
From the corporate jungle to the redneck ranchland
This land was made by Fox TV
It's bible bashin' Disneyland
It's yippee-ai eye for an eye
It's faith, family and flag
God, guns and apple pie
This land belongs to cowboys
In Stetsons, spurs 'n' suits
We're the Wall Street, Wal-Mart-Waltons
John-Boy, Jim-Bob, Jack-Boots
In the Burger Kingdom of the Stupid
Stupid is as Stupid does
Forrest Gump is President
Yee-haw! He's one of us!
We're Starbuckin' bronco Marlboro' men
We're big chief swingin' dicks
It's John Wayne's world in Washington
We're the Capitol Hillbilly hicks
We don't read books, we do action
All-American wham bam ma'am!
Schwarzenegger Uber Alles!
Gimme five! Jean Claude Van Damme!
Rambo is not a poet
The French is arty-farty funks
We hate cheese surrender chimpanzees
We hate perverts, pansies, punks
'Cos them flip-flop pinko girly boys
Don't walk The American Way
The Dixie Chicks are Communists
SpongeBob SquarePants is gay
Hollywood is Satan's whorehouse
It's the Sodom 'n' Gomorrah Motel
Route 666 to Tinseltown
Is the road to burnin' hell
We ride the hosanna highway
Saddle up our SUV
We got a two-ton tank 'n' a ten-gallon hat
O-I-L spells victory
We're Team USA cheerleaders
Go! Go! Go! The Pentagon!
Shakin' 9/11 pompoms 24/7
Armageddon? Bring it on!
We're the evangelical vandals
Shit-kick, kick, kickin' down Mecca's door
Rainin' baptist bombs on Babylon
Behold their Shock 'n' Awe!
We're pumpin'out Mohammed's diesel
Fillin' up Christ's limousine
Hallelujah Halliburton!
Glory! Glory! Gasoline!
We got no time for risin' oceans,
Ozone layers or polar bears
Kyoto - is that a Japanese car?
It's gettin' hot in here - who cares?
We export Nike swoosh democracy
Handmade with Asian sweat
And golden arches of McFreedom
Built on African debt
That Chuck Darwin was a monkey boy
His science fiction's over
The Almighty made us, that's a fact
Way to go Jehovah!
The American Dream is born again
It's a big name brand New Deal
It's a holy roller Coca-Cola
Prozac Happy Meal
It's Britney Spears 'n' Bud Lite beers
It's Super-Size 'n' Super Bowl
It's Dunkin' Donuts on your mind
It's botox for your soul
We don't spare no cash for trailer trash
You gotta help yourself Jose
We wipe our ass with dollar-bills
Da-doo Enron-ron have a nice day
We're the bullet-head neo-conmen
We're the mob that franchise fear
Cat Stevens is an evil terrorist
Folk with beards ain't welcome here
We zip 'em up like chocolate oranges
Shackle, cage, interrogate
We protect Wild West values
Strip, abuse, humiliate
We don't murder unborn babies
We're pro-life NRA
We Kentucky fry deathrow deadbeats
We're electric chairmen KKK
We're the Saxon sons of Uncle Sam
Our blood's red, white 'n' blue
There ain't no black in the Stars 'n' Stripes
It don't fly for Apache or Sioux
We have loosed the fateful lightning
Of our terrible swift sword
We're the Pentecostal patriots
Kick-butt and praise The Lord!
This land's not your land, this land is our land
From the buffalo Badlands to the cotton-pickin' Dixieland
From the Dust Bowl wasteland to the Presley Graceland
This land is Jesusland! Amen!

© Elvis McGonagall

◄ Aldeburgh First Collection Prize 2009

Ver Poets Open Poetry Competition 2009 ►

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Comments

<Deleted User> (6484)

Fri 14th Aug 2009 17:56

Excellent write Elvis, enjoyed? the read.
Bernie

Tommy Carroll

Thu 23rd Jul 2009 13:51

There is as much going on in the comments as is in the poem. I love 'one sided political poetry' As I have been blessed with the Lenin's gift: The inability to see my enemy's point of view! Enough to know that they are what they are. Would someone please direct me towards a brilliant poem by a right wing bigot that does not contain bucolic imagery! This rant is a minute by minute 'forehead-to-bridge-of-nose' account of neo-conservatism- we need more much more angry stuff like this! I will add; that though the 'spokespersons' of neo-conservatism have left center stage, they're still in the wings and writing the script.

Beulah

Wed 15th Jul 2009 15:13

Briiliant and f.fantastic!!!

Laura King (The Poet Laura-eate)

Wed 8th Jul 2009 14:58

Rantism at its finest Elvis! And lest anyone be in any doubt, it is meant to be IRONIC and a skit on racism, hypocrisy and small-mindedness. I have been lucky enough to see Elvis in full redneck-style rendition of this piece a number of times and it never fails to blow me away.
I guess it is one of those poems which probably works best as a performance piece if it is open to misinterpretation as a page poem.
Anyone who assumes it is in any way racist (other thread) is missing the point that it is anything but, and is indeed genuinely pushing the boundaries against all that it rails against.
Keep up the poetic derring-do Elvis!

<Deleted User> (6448)

Wed 8th Jul 2009 09:54

Hello there people - thanks to everyone who's taken the trouble to comment on the piece, including those who don't like it. Just wanted to put it into context quickly. It was written in 2005 as a response to the outlook and policies of the Bush administration (not as a general anti-American rant). I've always thought Bush was a six-foot human glove puppet - the piece really deals with the somewhat sinister neo-con
figures in the background with their hands up the puppet. People such as a prominent US senator who in all seriousness insisted that Spongebob Squarepants was indeed gay and a threat to society's morals. Extreme right wing politicians who courted the fundamentalist Christian vote and who resorted to the cheap rhetoric of television's evangelist preachers whilst taking America in a disturbing direction. In any event it was written as a performance piece rather than something for the page and should probably be heard live. Although I haven't performed it since last November's US election night and don't intend to as the Cheneys and Rumsfeld's of this world no longer wield power. Thank fuck. And thank fuck Barack Obama was elected. Cheers, Elvisx

Dave Bradley

Tue 7th Jul 2009 13:35

Hi Elvis

Effective and powerful, a worthy poem of the month.

However, and I hope I'm not being pedantic, the US Christian scene is far more diverse than one might imagine from some UK media reports. Have you run across Jim Wallis? (e.g. 'God's Politics'). www.theooze.com is one of many possible entry points to the emerging church thing which is trying to wrestle honestly with the complexities of our modern world. This isn't to recommend everything in those or similar sources, just to say the poem, while being (unfortunately) spot on, is only part of the picture

Best wishes - I'll be looking out for your stuff

Tomás Ó Cárthaigh

Mon 6th Jul 2009 23:23

O-I-L spells Victory... so so so true...

<Deleted User> (4714)

Sat 4th Jul 2009 13:47

well some of them anyway..

<Deleted User> (4714)

Sat 4th Jul 2009 13:44

this poem is brilliant! though perhaps the yanks might not appreciate the 'racisim' so obviously directed at them..

Gus Jonsson

Fri 3rd Jul 2009 00:33

This poem is most certainly worthy of its choice for POM, whilst it has clearly upset a few, by virtue of mis interpretation (on their part).

I for one think it's a powerful rant highlighting American consumer lead extremism, rednecks and the so called trailer trash underclasses.

I love my friends in the USA and in all other parts of the world including my own, although I am not totally in agreement with all that our varous counties aspire to... however there is nothing better than a good well written and structured rant!

Well Done ELVIS

Gus

Martin Nelson

Thu 2nd Jul 2009 19:52

I rarely comment on the Poems of the Month but this months I feel is so spectacularly poor that I couldn't let it pass. There's not creativity to be seen. Just the random stringing together of pathetic cliches and stereotypes that invite misinterpretation.

Having gone and looked for more of Elvis' work I can say on reading them it's not exactly clever stuff. With that said I do hope that I have the opportunity to hear Elvis as I feel that when heard instead of read his poetry will be better by a clear margin.

Malpoet

Thu 2nd Jul 2009 16:41

Excellent performance piece.

Steve Smith

Thu 2nd Jul 2009 09:28

This poem confuses stereotypes of the rural north american underclass with the policies of Corporate imperialism -the manufacturer of the aforesaid stereotypes.So, despite its rhetorical agility ,I think it is only performing a lazy trick.
Steve Smith

Steve Regan

Thu 2nd Jul 2009 03:39

Don't like this at all. It is politically naive. And in its slavish adherence to left-liberal orthodoxy, it is depressingly conservative. God bless America!

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Wed 1st Jul 2009 16:41

This is a minefield of sophistry by a very sophisticated man: it will take you wherever you want to go. Its length is more like a full-blown concert than a single song; my attention span would give up.

Isobel

Wed 1st Jul 2009 14:04

Actually Jeremy didn't use the same words as me - full of verve and energy and wit - I would agree. I also like the change in style - it is good to have different types of poetry finding acceptance, success and approval.

Isobel

Wed 1st Jul 2009 13:58

I might as well be the one to start the ball rolling. I don't normally like one sided political poetry but I do love a rant. As Jeremy says - this is very clever - with too many brilliant play on words to mention - though I so like the 'shit kick kickin on Mecca's door' - I would have to sing that line if I were performing it! You should give us a recording of it also - this kind of poetry needs to be heard. I daresay it won't be universally popular - particularly with our site members West of the Atlantic...

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