Elegy of a Nation’s Vow

I pledge allegiance to my land,

Yet this anthem feels worn and bland.

Its chorus, once proud, now cliché—

A relic sold to dismay.

Containers of corruption brim,

Filled by hands once held as prim:

Miners, vote-chasers, Presidents—

All complicit in the decadence.

This is no pledge, but a cleaving truth,

A wedge that split our civic youth.

The ridge of duty, now eroded,

By mediocrity, proudly coded.

Desire has become our creed,

A hunger none dare impede.

So I pledge, with tempered tone,

Less bravado, more flesh and bone.

A vow less grand, yet more sincere,

Echoing through each passing year.

Our captains, once bold and free,

Have steered us to a silent sea—

Where citizenship rests, quietly,

In a grave of lost dignity.