Americans

by Peycho Kanev

I love the Americans. I admit it. They are politically correct

and believe in everything the government tells them. They

respect their elders and send them away to some luxury nursing

home. They love the president and they could die for their country.

They respect the African-Americans and the Indians. That’s the truth!

They honor their intellectuals and during their vacation they go to

Europe, because they say “There is still something to be seen”.

Baseball and football are their new religions, but the original church

doesn’t pay taxes at all. They kill animals only for food and never wear

clothes from animal skins. They listen to the anthem with hands on

their hearts. That’s the truth! They read and quote the Bible and believe

that Jesus watches over them. They use candles only in the winter

when the lights are out. They show respect to the immigrants and they

think highly of their roots. They eat only organic food and keep track

of their cholesterol level, except the people of Texas. When they shake

your hand, they don’t grip too tight and they are always polite. All of

them want to be in Hollywood, want to be rock stars or to run multi-

billion dollar companies. They bow before the Big Business. When I think

of it, maybe they light candles only for the latter. They care for the

environment and they raise funds at the charity auctions. They don’t

read a lot, but they watch a lot of sitcoms. They honor their famous

dead and they name streets after them. They don’t like the Russians,

but the Chinese run almost all of their American money. They respect

the memory of their great writers and know that almost all of them

spent a great portion of their time in Europe. And at the end I want to

say again that I love the Americans, because they are the salt of the earth.

That’s the truth!

Peycho Kanev has been writing poetry for the past 10 years. His poems have appeared in more than 400 literary magazines, such as: Poetry Quarterly, Contemporary World Literature, Steam Ticket, Ann Arbor Review, Midwest Literary Review, Third Wednesday, Burnt Bridge, Istanbul Literary Review, Loch Raven Review, In Posse Review, The Penwood Review, Mascara Literary Review, The Mayo Review and many others. He is nominated for the Pushcart Award and lives in Chicago. In 2009 his short story collection Walking Through Walls (Ciela), and in April 2010 his poetry collection American Notebooks (Ciela) both were published in Bulgaria. His new poetry collection Bone Silence was released in September 2010 by Desperanto, NY. He is the Editor In Chief of Kanev Books.