day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY SIX

this american life

this american life

is for people with money

it’s a loser sign

posted on your back

before the first cup of coffee

or the first day of school

it’s the self-delusion

of an exceptional day

waxing poetic about streaming tv shows

and super hero movies

updating your facebook posts

and scanning your twitter feeds for confirmation

building walls you can’t even see

this american life

is made for war profits

and water surges

breathing in smog

bathing in chemicals

a three-thousand mile fantasyland

for philistines with a heavy cash flow

to exploit workers

and become emperors with no clothes

it’s diarrhea-the-mouth

corporate media and fake news

a boot-strapping dildo

shoved up an ungreased asshole

this american life

is reefer madness and breakfast burritos

for white kids on college campuses

a mass incarceration salsa

twerking appropriation in the hood

it’s gimme

gimme

your tired your poor your huddled masses

yearning to breathe free

and i’ll scapegoat them whenever i get the chance

this american life

is a fallacy flag stuck in your pretty lawn

in a gentrified neighborhood

where uncle sam is a slum lord

and the statue of liberty

ain’t nothing

but a lazy whore

--John Grochalski