Happy Birthday, America

Each birthday sees another year
We put into our past
And we remark, as they approach,
“This year’s gone by so fast”

We gain a little wisdom

And we lose a little hair
And vow we’ll do more exercise
And eschew he éclair

We’ll learn to speak a language

Or to play the bass guitar
But birthday resolutions
Just don’t get us very far

Our nation has a birthday

And we mark it every year
With spectacles and speeches
Both the raucous and austere

With cannonades and concerts

Folks at PBS are staging
While failing to appreciate
Our country, too, is aging

We’re one more year removed

From when our founders filled the hall
To sign a piece of parchment
And together risk it all
 
They had, if you look carefully
But little chance of winning
And hardly a conception
Of the battle just beginning

The way is long and dangerous
And struggles seldom cease
In the fight to nurture liberty
And insure domestic peace

No year will go by quietly

And each tomorrow brings
A testament of tyrants
And a cast of would-be kings

Those who want the power

But ignore both law and letter
Who defend such usurpations
By asserting they know better.

They say they love the nation

But have funny ways to show it
And one by one like birthdays
Freedom’s gone before you know it.

So resolve to serve your country

And the threats now placed upon her
By pledging your...attention
And, of course, your sacred honor