America, Why I Love Her

*by JOHN WAYNE

YOU ASK ME WHY I LOVE HER?
Well, give me time and I'll explain.
Have you seen a Kansas sunset
Or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou down
Louisiana way?
Have you watched a cloud fog drifting
over San Francisco bay?

Have you heard a bobwhite
Calling in the Carolina pines,
Or heard the bellow of a diesel
At the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill
You when you hear her waters roar?
Do you look with awe and
Wonder at her Massachusetts shore,
Where men who braved a
Hard new world first
Stepped on Plymouth's rock?
And do you think of them
When you stroll along a
New York City dock?

Have you seen a snowflake drifting
In the, Rockies way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing
Down from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as
She rushes to the sea,
Or bow your head at Gettysburg
At our struggle to be free

Have you seen the mighty Tetons?
Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi
Roll along Missouri's shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan
When on a winter's day
Her waters rage along the shore
In thunderous display.
Does the word "Aloha"
Make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief
When you see the surf come
Roaring in at Waimea Reef?

From Alaska's cold to the Everglades,
From the Rio Grande to Maine,
My heart cries out, my pulse
Runs fast at the might at her domain.
You asked me why I Love Her?
I've a million reasons why:
My Beautiful America,
Beneath God's wide, wide sky!

God and the Soldier, we adore,
In time of danger, not before.
The danger passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the Soldier slighted.
~Rudyard Kipling~