Republic Of The Xenophobic

I heard him call me a Nazi

under his breath

I gave him a look

and decided his ignorance

wasn't worth the breath

Yes I'm a strong German woman

No I won't take your shit

But his ignorance makes me wonder

what side of the fence his ancestors stood

My birth in the "Land Of The Free"

was once considered a privilege

After my family's country of Pomerania

was destroyed by the Nazi regime

When the Nazis first came

They set up their camps

They raided, pillaged, and raped the land

My great grandfather, Bruno

was mayor of the town

of Uekermünde

A seaside trading town

Filled with people of all kinds

Germans, Solvaks, Jews

and the list goes on

The message was clear from Hitler's command

"You are with us or you are against us."

Bruno refused to let his town of people he loved

be confiscated by hate

He lead a rebellion against the invaders

So they took the 200lb German man

and threw him in the concentration camps

War recognizes no creed

but the enemy

My great grandma and her 3 daughters

were left in the Nazi ghetto to fight

To fight for life

To fight for freedom

To fight for anything they had left

My grandma, Gerda

Told me she used to feed the family

with potato skins she found in the dumpsters

Her intuition was sharp enough

to anticipate outrunning bombs with her sisters

Her strength was strong enough

to fight off some of the Nazis and Soviets

The only reason why they stayed there for so long

is there was no where else to go

Great grandma Grosmutti had left her family

back in Czechoslovakia

where fascism had a strong hold

And deep down

she always hoped Bruno would return home

And the day he did

she hardly recognized him

A soft knock at the door

of what was left of their home

Bruno had returned

but he was a mere 90lbs

Before he could say anything

he fainted from near starvation

But he had escaped

the concentration camps

They made a plan

and headed out west

Bruno still had family

in the Black Forest

That's where my grandma

met my grandpa

A Scottish-American soldier

She had left the love of her life

in Uekermünde

but she always had dreams

of going to California

This was her ticket

Grandpa Harry

was handsome & charming

He captivated her with his intelligence

and his stories of becoming American

So she came way out west

To the golden state

called California

Her accent was harsh

Everyone knew she was an immigrant

And back in the 1950s

America's favorite xenophobia

was of the Germans

She was ridiculed by her neighbors

She was abused by her doctors

She thought coming to America

would grant her the refuge

and freedom she always wanted

but in the end it was just another

cage in a garden

Flash forward to 2021 in the United States

The trendiest enemy has been Muslims

since the Reagan Administration

Now with the global pandemic

and the idiocracy of the Trump Administration

we see a resurgence of Asian hate

It seems that whoever America is at war with

becomes the target for domestic abomination

I'd like to see the day

where wars end

and there is no prescribed culture to hate

Except for our world's largest oppressor

our own governments