The Best Ever
There are untold numbers of galaxies
Ours is the best ever though.
There are planets popping up daily
as our vision gets better
Ours is the best ever though.
All the others are inhospitable
there are no Abrahams on them
breaking out the choicest wine
for intergalactic strangers who wander by
the entrance of our tent
There are countless moons
Ours is the best ever though.
We hammered down the flag there
so that tells us so.
There are an infinite number of beliefs to be held
But ours are the truest ever though.
How do we know?
Because our sacred book
that we wrote for ourselves
tells us and everybody else so.
There are thousands of flags
But ours is the best ever though.
Those colors were painted on
by the hand of God
don't you know?
Attaching one to every pole and structure in sight
tells us so.
The People are Numb
It’s not an ideal endorsement
To point out a society’s
Obsession
with violence
Comfort
with violence
Numbness has set in
And comfort has come
with the numb
The ones we ordain heroes
Would cut our throats
Over a parking spot or less
Generations and generations
of killers
And a corresponding generation
of justifiers
Protecting the economy
That most sacred of our deities
Economic interests attract our bombs
Too bad real people live real lives
in the midst
Or die
real deaths
Somebody is going to have to clean this up
It will be the people,
when they grow up
It will be the people,
when they step up
It will be the people,
when we finally have enough
Give us a creative spark
So we don’t take up violent means
There is a scenic route
Of understanding and dialogue
Let’s ask who really wants it to stop
Who would play with this many lives?
Not stats, not ‘the enemy’
Your own damn brother
You are more like him than you think.
Small Circle
Narrow mind
Small circle
Scum on the bathroom wall
Scum for sale in the neighbor’s yard
Build that fence a bit higher
A coil of barbed wire at the top
He means business
Preserve this scum inside here
Roll it up in a ball
Let it grow
Put some lipstick on that ball of scum
Crown it queen of the county
Laugh and smile like you practice
Doesn’t imply that you ever mean it
To break in to the small circle
Was foolish to consider
People
run this circle
Don’t try to break in
Where people don’t want you
It’s small there
Hard to breathe
Let yourself out into the open spaces
And we can think clearly.
Marginalized
The realities of our respective contexts
Tell a story of exclusion
The mechanisms and machinery are varied
And there is a matter of degree
We’ve always had our lepers.
And they never have a chance.
Dreams are sold to them
They pay their life’s savings
For the Great Pipe Dream
And they pull from that pipe, and others
To escape the systems that cage them
The systems that paralyze them
The lucky ones
And the ones without conscience
Have their friends and means
Handed to them
Affirmative action for the privileged
Already overdosed on superficial affirmation
They feel so misunderstood
We’ll cry for the pain and emotional hurdles,
While the masses cry for preventable reasons
Reasons we flick out the window
As we speed by
The gods of an empire
Didn’t seem concerned with the common good
Only that we keep on ‘expanding our territory.’
Pushing colors and difference
Into the darkest corners
Where the establishment can hide them
Forsake
Interrogate
Marginalize
them.
The Sacred and the Profane
There’s a preacher behind every tree
Popping out with the bad news
Ten thousand who want answers
Questions are appropriate
Living in the wind
Sometimes we sail
Or rest
on a branching of recovery
Movement spends energy
Stillness somehow replenishes the supply
Everybody has always known
There is something sacred about water
The sounds it makes
And forms it takes
Calm our worried minds
Warms our frozen bones
Cools our cold-sweating foreheads
In the waiting rooms
As we sit in a circle
Trying to see who’s the craziest
Waiting on the magic potion
Addressing our own personal so-and-so’s
In the name of
Becoming ‘productive members of society’
Machines in human flesh
cartilage and nerves are real
Soul is in a coma.
Smilin’ Oppressor
Was born and raised in the timberlands
Fried chicken from the hands of a black employee
The way it was
And she was ‘one of the family’
But we didn’t really know what it meant
To have a dark sister
Who did all the hard work
Went back to her subsistence life
Loved them nevertheless
Taught them tolerance and respect
In a weird way
But still kept the hierarchy intact
Good vibes remain from integration
The winners always remember good vibes
When we say there were no problems
We mean that things were
orderly
Pronouncing peace and equality
While pumping our real clout into the machine
Of systematic bigotry and prejudice
Justified by gods and deformed law
We love those kids now
Just don’t let ‘em come home with my children
Or never date them
Or love them
She’s had a history of trouble with the law, you know
Shit man, who hasn’t in this system?
(Oh right, I forgot.)
The others are great athletes, but low on character and smarts
Low in species, is implied
A wink and a nod, surely means white pride.
Ticket to the Sun
The sun emanates
traveling light
It's only one sun
not so much an anomaly