I saw my own funeral last night / What a let down / Dear Reader – you son of a bitch / You didn’t even bother to show up / Don’t feel too bad / No one was there / I must have not gotten the invitations out in time / Damn Post Office / You just can’t depend on them / I thought email would be too impersonal / Who wants to read about death electronically / I sure as hell don’t / So I sat alone in the congregation / I watched my lifeless body lay there / And all I could think was “You stupid bastard – do something†/ Then I realized that I didn’t even like the guy up there / I got up and exited the boxcar / I walked for a few miles and was saddened that I was my only friend / Maybe I should have said a few words / Shared a few old stories / But laziness got the best of me and I didn’t turn back / Rigor mortis sets in fast / Decomposition and all that jazz / I made my way to a roadside café / Found a booth / Ordered a pot of black / Smoked my grandfather’s old pipe / Added some whisky to my coffee / And thought “we will try again next monthâ€
I am a half cocked concept / If I could follow a train of thought to the end / I am sure I would be a millionaire / Then I could hate myself / I hate the rich / Their luxury soaps have removed their human scent / My stomach turns every time I catch wind of them / The poor are the people I can relate to / But they also make my stomach heave / Too much human scent / Too close to the bone / They reek of hard work and loss / America are you smelling this / Our scents are all out of order / The clean hands are free of work and calluses / The dirty hands claw at the earth and dig graves for their children / The lazy make baths and are rewarded for their hypocrisy / The workers lay in the scum and pray to the gods of democracy / The deaf and blind gods / the self serving wealthy gods / the too busy for the people gods / The mortal and weak gods / the child eating cannibal gods / This is where socialism makes the most sense / In our scents and in our prayers / In our chains and in our stink / In a world where money and power hold the people’s heads under water / And we are waiting for the final kick / We are waiting for the water to remove us from this rotten smell
I passed a man on the streets yesterday / When I got six steps away from him he yelled out to me / “Young man, you don’t know shit!†/ I did not turn around to face him for a few seconds / Maybe I thought he would just go away / He started to question me / “Why is there a quart of oil in your fridge?†/ “Why are there bullets in your medicine cabinet?†/ “Why do all of the faucets in your house release gasoline?†/ “Why do you lay rifles to rest in your children’s beds?†/ “Why does your television only show what you want to see?†/ “Why do you pledge your allegiance to a coat closet?†/ “Why do you eat shit, digest shit and shit shit?†/ “Why do you bother to go to the store and buy new shit?†/ “Why are the roaches in your house fat and your neighbors are starving?†/ When I turned to look at him he just stood there and smiled / I didn’t know what to say / I was too embarrassed to be seen talking to him / People might think I was crazy / Who wants to be seen talking to themselves / But he was right!
I have never bothered to vote / Politics are just show business for the ugly / A big top circus without the trapeze artists / The clowns – the elephants – the fat overfed audience / They are all there below / The trapeze artists are too smart to be on the floor / Too smart to walk among the lions and muscle men / They know that the bearded woman is a sinner and only fit for the flames / They live a life of balance and consequences / They take care of their own / Making sure that their children don’t fall / They know that their voices go unnoticed / They can see it all from above / The clowns are only a facade for the lion tamers / The crowd buys into every illusion / They cheer the lion tamer and curse the lions for doing what they were trained to do / And when the lions fight back they rally behind the whip / They get fat on the hotdogs and cotton candy / Believing that the venders would never sell them poison / Never having to leave their seats / Never having to miss the show / They cheer for the next act / Believing that their voices control the show / Never knowing that it is all set in advance / Never knowing that they are the audience of a trillion dollar act / And if they ever start to catch on to the lie / The vendors bring out another flavor of beer / Something new / Something to calm the nerves / A pacifier for the masses
Sometimes we get lost in the work / The projects / The writings / The art / The music / The dream / Sometimes we put everything into something that means nothing / Then we sit among the mass produced books and albums / The unsold – dust-collecting dreams / We sit and complain about never getting a break / Or not knowing the right people / Or wishing that we could do it again and try a bit harder / We forget why we started in the first place / Not to be rich / And sure as hell not for the love of it / We did it because we were bored / Because we didn’t know how to do anything else / Because we were alone and longed to be something to someone / But it never pays off / The lonely got married / Got laid / Had kids / Got famous / And kept on writing / Kept on singing / Kept ..ing / And kept on trying to capture a photo of life / The sun kept rising and setting / And we sat alone on our beds trying to write the perfect song / Some would say that we missed life / We did not notice it pass by / Every note and every poem / Every photo and every canvas / They were all just lost moments / This is the lie / There are no pointless notes / There are no defeated poems / There are no lost moments / There are only moments / There are only thoughts / There are only measures / And there are only half cocked concepts
We create are own cancer / Alcohol / Heroin / Pornography / Religion / Politics / Governments / We create it and consume it / We embrace it and rape it / We inhale it and breathe it out / Our government didn’t create it / No – They only profit from it / We put the chains around our own necks / And we allow them to pull the chains tight / We allow them to steal our breath / We grew the tobacco / We dried it and rolled it / But they gave us a light / They taught us how to inhale / They taught us how to pass it around the room / We create are own cancer / Wine / Cocaine / Television / Radio / Computers / And Poetry
We all serve masters / Gods – Devils – Heroes / We are all slaves / Bound by our own lot / We all bow to idols / Flags – Anthems – Ideals / None of us are really sheep / Wolves – Devouring our own kind / We are all starving / Fed by Radios – Televisions – Computers / We are all actors / Playing our rolls to perfection / We are all gods / Building worlds of scum / We are all devils / The other side of the mirror / We are all heroes / Killing to be seen as so / We are all humans / The bottom of the chain / We are all slaves / Pushed by human nature / Pulling our chains tight