decline and fall of
the roman empire
it gives you pause
to live in a nation
that makes an enemy of a twenty-five year old kid
and throws him in jail for thirty-five years
for doing what he thought was right for his nation
but continues to let
every thieve
hustler
and fringe lunatic
have a hand in running this nation
it gives you pause
or maybe just a shrug because we’re so used
to this kind of bullshit
coming out of the capital
maybe it doesn’t matter anymore
and we’re beyond all redemption at this point
maybe you just don’t care
and you’ll go and vote this november anyway
for this corporate shill or that
provided you have the right kind of i.d.
of course
i wouldn’t blame you
if you sat this nation out
taking my own look around this worn republic
and the jack-offs in charge
stalemating this place into dust
it’s easy to see why millions of us go home
to get lost in television
alcohol
our gadgets
and the pursuit of happy binge eating
until we pass out into unmade beds
waking up the next morning
to find out who this week’s villain will be
over coffee and pulp-free o.j.
a politician
a movie starlet
a celebrity chef
or some scared techy who worked for the nsa
this is the new american ideal
where kids kill out of boredom
where prisoners go on hunger strikes for a fair shake
and fast food workers take to the streets
asking to trade one-dollar hamburgers for a livable wage
while their corporate head honchos
sit in board rooms figuring out a way for these people
to balance their budgets on two jobs
and make more money out of their bottom line
where thirty-thousand people cheer
a drug cheat aging jock on his last legs
take a fastball to the neck
just to feel wholesome and self-righteous
about their own hollow lives
this is the fall and decline of the roman empire, you fools
the long-awaited sequel
coming at you in 2D, real 3D, and imax
the first scene of this thriller
a bankrupt detroit rambler passing through
wasteland main streets
with billboards for wal-mart and target
hanging in the dust-blown distance
offering everyday low prices on shit that no one needs
as this summer’s radio jam plays a bombastically
over spliced cute cat videos
looping over images of superman and iron man
fucking shit up
before super-sizing their asses all the way to the bank
where one-thousand dead
across a rapidly rising ocean
and our own tyranny at home
is a footnote
next to some bad actor dying
or whether or not a pop star cut her hair
and you thought the apocalypse would be nasty?
We are truly fucked up.
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