Never Even Dreamed We Were So Clueless

How was I to foresee they would suddenly outsource my position to 4 third-worlders?

We could not have known that there was not enough water for us all, out here in Las Vegas

Never knew how fragile that Big Oil teat we all loved so dearly really was

Had no idea our homes would not be free ATMs for all the rest of everybody’s lives

Were so surprised that our financial industry created the credit mess that ruined us

Shocked that our special kids would not lead the world, much less find decent jobs

Could not imagine ourselves as profitable examples of energy usage and innovation

Did not realize the wasteful habits that I thought saved me time did not pay off at all, in the end

Ignored those irrelevant foreigners moving in other directions, leaving us far behind

Never even dreamed that retirement would become such a quaint and bygone concept

Consternated to find it so expensive to leave the big screen plugged in 24 hours every day

Surprised to be deciding between the mortgage, groceries, heating and health care

Could not possibly have grasped our utter dependence on Chinese goods for our very lives

Did not expect to see poor families living in giant SUVs that would never run again

Was stunned when a leader finally said we might need to do more while using less

Flabbergasted as the roads became impassible, dams broke and bridges were declared unsafe

How could I have foreseen myself unemployable, uninsured and without any savings at 50?

Why would I have ever worried about what they called this junk science of climate change?

Never even thought a negative savings rate might not be proper for His chosen people

Did not conceive that I’d ever see kids picking through dumps for what I had thrown away

Not even wackos mentioned we should treat domestic animals with the golden rule

Shocked to find there were no more jobs that I could not even afford to commute to

Certainly never thought My family had a hand in some vast, mass extinction of the seas

How were we supposed to know that such cheerful lawn products poisoned our drinking water?

Mighty surprised to learn how much oil all those disposable plastic bags had cost us

Could never have foreseen that my lifestyle would have caused me all these diseases

Did not think once that the boys really should have learned to read and to do the math

Why should I have worried about overpopulation when God had told us to just go on forth?

Never even dreamed I wouldn’t be laughing at them treehuggerss driving teeny cars

Got caught flatfooted when I couldn’t get another home equity loan to go on vacation again

I had never even considered I could not afford to dine out for lunch, 3 times a week

Always took it for granted that defense and healthcare would cost a lot more every year

Surely, I could not have predicted we would run out of credit and petroleum both at once

Never could have dreamed consumer spending would stop being the cure-all for all our economic ills

Didn’t cross my mind how much they planned to charge me for a simple death with dignity

How would I have known I was just hearing voices when I thought I was talking to my savior?

Take Your Conservative Values...With You

You can mount your fat and loud Harley while I slide on my sleekly whining rice burner

Go climb up in your 300 horsepower crossover while I slip into my hi-tech hybrid

Blare some Fox Republican Radio as I privately tune into NPR

Have yourself a double cheese burger and I’ll hit the Health Foods salad bar

Get into the institutional weekend football game as we watch MMA on weeknights

Fire up your brand new ATV and wail past our slow hiking into the wilderness

Turn up the satellite country music as we listen to new downloads in our earbuds

Suck down that read meat and potatoes while we prepare some spicy Thai food

Go chase some elk on your smoking snowmobiles as we listen for the cold silence

Pay lots to make your pickup a lot louder and roar on past me as I commute on my bicycle

Put your everlasting faith in the bible and I’ll support evolution until the evidence changes

Stand up against the environmental wackos while we quietly evolve our new lifestyle

Keep supporting unaffordable free-market medicine as we ask for universal healthcare

Just keep focusing only on the democrats as new, different parties emerge at last

Reiterate the importance of abortion and I’ll keep talking about climate change

Talk about the sanctity of marriage as I try and require an exam to have children

Knee-jerkingly approve defense increases as we join hands in search of peace

Adopt the arrogantly-smirking Texas lifestyle as we look to folks in Europe for consolation

Laugh about your extra pounds while joking sarcastically about us, as we are walking by

Put your money in clothes, cars and vacations and we’ll retire 15 years before you

Take your processed red meats and pass the un-drugged, free-range chicken, please

Dwell in the faux luxury of your McMansions as we downsize in comfort far away

Get hypnotized by corporate soundbites while we deep dive the details on the internet

Roar across the waters drunk and shouting hoarsely as we quietly paddle and just observe

Listen as your media leaders pigeonhole us and ignore our independent consensus

Worship your rigged free markets and leave us to fair trade sustainability

Point to your golf course ponds and fight our suit to halt your wetland progress

Have some super-sweetened cereal and take your laxative instead of eating real fiber, stupid

Kill a tree for Christmas and get our re-gifted items in your own recycled wrapping paper

Adjust your thermostats for comfort in the fight against our foolish global warming hoax

Have illegales manicure your artificial lawns and laugh at our pitiable xeriscape

Leave all your electronics on all the time as we compete to use the fewest watts

Make your living fast-talk-pimping real estate while leaving the engineering to us

Destroy their future to get rich quick as we scramble to sustain ourselves in your dirty wake

Send your many discards to the landfills where we foresee your children subsisting

Take your sad and comical, old-timey heaven and leave us the certainty of the eternal void

Lust For Life, American Style

They said to stop and smell the roses so we cut em all and then forgot them when we left

Knowing how short life is, I ran up my credit, declared bankruptcy and then walked away

I need to carpe every diem so joyously I graze myself further into obesity at every meal

As I realize that any day might be my last, I guzzle a couple extra beers every night

In an effort to meet my potential, I let my wastes fall wherever I produce them

To save a bit of precious time I toss aside the packaging as I quickly drive away

Wishing not to waste a single vital minute, she viciously cell-gossiped as she drove to work

Grabbing life by the horns, we took another vacation with our 2^nd home equity loan

I have set myself a goal of maintaining my instant gratification, over the long run

Determined not to be ensnared like ordinary people, we financed new ATVs and jet-skis

In my luxury performance sedan I truly feel in step with the grand march of life here on earth

Pondering my place in our wondrous panoply, I find the remote control once again

Striving to center, she purchased fine cosmetics, costly surgery and an unreal hair color

I financed a lifetime of stirring satisfaction identifying with my corporate home teams

Seeing that we might as well be comfortable, I bought another family land barge

In my moments of panic and confusion, jesus is there beside me, his hand upon my shoulder

Believing the thrifty died rich and the old died emptily, we resolved to spend it now

Why, with heaven assured for us, we can afford to let tomorrow take care of itself

Knowing I might not always be there for them, I grant my children’s every wish, immediately

Since you’re really never sure how long you’ve got, we’ll go ahead and get supersized once again

I seek a deeper, longer-lasting meaning as I drive blindly past the homeless every day

Knowing that you only go around one time, I grab passing pleasures by the armful

I pursue an unspoken long-term goal of simply enjoying each and every minute as it comes

Hearing of other’s suffering, we determined to grasp as much as we can just as fast as we can

In the light of world problems far beyond our control, we’ll just kick it back and relax

We took lessons from other’s early misfortunes and keep our savings to a minimum

Given the shortness of life, it seems right to get away from work as often as I can

I could never stand to be 40, so what’s the damn point learning this useless crap, anyhow?

We wanted it all, so we got a huge house, big-screen TV, ski boat and a giant RV

I always just had to smile when the Doc told me to start exercising and lose some weight

We’re going for the gusto and reaching out now for maximum enjoyment, in our great lust for life

We dine out finely in our new clothes and we usually make that minimum monthly CC payment

The world is going to shit so we might as well have a good time for just as long as we can

With those 2^nd mortgages, the house was way underwater so we rightly just walked away from it

I need to go for it while I can still enjoy it, not later on when I’m doddering and sick

Right now, my answer to the big questions is to just follow my desires, artificial or not

Gas-Powered Wreckreation

I pull them 5 ATVs up the hill behind my big diesel just trying to relax on the weekend

We get tired of the same old places and go ahead pioneering different bandit trails

We stop for the snacks we brought along and just tuck the cans and wrappers behind a tree

Little Timmy loves to gun that 4 wheeler just like the little man I need him so much to be

We drag the jet skis 300 miles to the half-dried up reservoir way out in the empty desert

We got giant overstuffed coolers by the tables underneath a colorful plastic party gazebo

We roar around the lake making waves and yelling at each other at the tops of our voices

Drink a lot of beer and just piss and shit out in the water, whenever it strikes us

Tow my 40’ trailer out to Colorado ever august cause it’s too hot in our beloved Texas

We like to spend our days in the truck way up in the high country looking at the scenery

We run a generator for the microwave and blow dryer, the A/C and the DVD

This here is truly god’s country and we’re thinking of building us another second home

We drove 3000 miles to take pictures of ourselves taking pictures at the overlooks

Munched on overpriced, over-sweetened, over-salted, over-packaged treats along the way

Storing the digital memories of a lifetime standing beside lots of other real nice people

Staying safely in the same hotels all along the way and we keep our windows rolled up tight

Trailered up the snow machines and left stinking clouds of smoke pulling them up the pass

Pulled off all kinda like extreme moves as my savage 700 lb metal beastie roared

Tracked down and chased some elk and deer through the heavily drifted snow

Think I really felt I blew off some steam and, why, I didn’t bother nobuddy or hurt nothin

Got out on the water in my 20’ speedboat with those twin 250 horsepower Black Mercs

She’ll run 40 mph and has a 100 gallon gas tank that serves up the good times we love so much

We pull the kids around on water donuts and they lay there and laugh and scream

Why just alone the trailer for this baby is costin me like 13 grand…

Headed out west in our 65’ class C RV that we still owe a cool quarter of a mil on

It’s as big as a semi and protects our frail blue-haired bodies real well

Got a sporty paint job, a catchy name, a little hot tub and pulls our SUV right along behind

Gets 4 MPG and the mechanics charge $85/hr with a $100 minimum to change a bulb

Pulled on my $1500 leathers and strode out into the garage to mount my holy Harley

Had loud mufflers put on so I wear these earplugs but damn does it sound nice

I only ride it some weekends in the summer but it was just $30k from our home equity

Gonna take a freedom ride with the boys out west some day and reclaim my masculinity

Flew off to tony resorts fenced safely from the surrounding poor who despise us

Dropped into the 3^rd world searching for meaning and watched them grub their food

Feasted on dynamited fish and didn’t know or care where the water came from or the waste went

Assured ourselves that our vacationing presence brought a miracle of clean eco-tourism growth

But all these good times just blur together in the anticipation of our next wreckreational adventure

Now, Who Was I Really?

Can I finally risk a moment now to stop and ask, or am I still just in far too much of a hurry

What was my story again? just text me the take away

Did I ever even try to know? yeah, right…so why would anyone else even ask

Was I swimming hard but just holding my small place there, close to the bank

What were those unspecified goals towards which I moved with ever increasing speed

Did my influence end simply when I finally ceased spending more than I was earning

What slowly diminishing rippling effects spread out in that wake I long ago stopped making

Who is there to answer for me, if even I did not try and question it at all for myself

Who was I but some uncle who died long ago, barely known, leaving them nothing

And who were they, but minor characters, overlooked in my unscripted personal melodrama

Do I abide in a saccharine heavenly glory, or have I been sent to their tragicomic hell, or?

Where are those missing final statements from the boring ledger of my passing life

Who was I really, if I myself could not be bothered to take the time to stop and ask

Was I that gray and sick old man they turned from, who could not even sit up in bed

Maybe the smiling, hurried so-called professional who could not stay too long

Then again, there was that dripping boy who so reminded them of his grandfather

Who was that guy I looked at in the pictures someone else took when I happened to be there

What were those things that I found so important back then that they kept me so long in a blur

Was I the one always laughing too loudly, way too often, at the expense of others

Did I really spend a third of my life in bed and fully another fifth in front of a TV

Why cant I find all that stuff I held as the very dearest to life, not really too long ago

Where are those little darlings that made even all that work seem so worthwhile

Where has that woman gone I loved so much that it could make me cry

Is it true there really is no way, looking back from now, to find out who I was then

Why does the value of my pleasures seem to have drained through my hands like so much water

How come I don’t remember all the holidays I spent so much time looking forward to

How can I fail to be able to reckon up the present value of my lifelong reckless habits

Who was I and did that answer already disappear many years ago, somewhere in my clueless past

Does it all really dribble out to nothing at an empty dead end, just past nowhere

Then again, there certainly were moments, though I have sewn no meaningful tapestry

Can’t I reach back now to enjoy the worth of all the things I always did - for the future

Now can I ask for some of that that time I was always working so hard to try and save

Leading The Undeveloping World

Lighting this new and self-inflicted Dark Age with our blindingly intolerant religions

Scoffing at any scientists whose work contradicts our faith - Or that of our donors

Denying millions to what we trumpet as the world’s finest health care system

Increasing illiteracy rates with every graduating class of our overweight and spoiled children

Devolving freedom of the press into cheerfully-empty, commercially-safe soundbites

Encouraging the ignorant poor to breed freely as the educated opt out of parenthood

Arming ourselves with god’s blessing for any neo-crusade our leaders see fit to pursue

Letting our infrastructure crumble around us but automatically raising cost-plus military spending

Rejecting investment in actual business for artificial speculation in phony financial innovations

Refusing to set any example on emissions and energy use for developing countries

Encouraging our own Balkanization through expensive multi-lingual governance

Rewarding phony, closeted leaders for exporting research, engineering, production and support

Building up vast stores of usable materials in our dumps for future hand-gathering by our descendants

Leading the world in time spent at war, anorexia, tv-watching, debt and obesity

Being the most aware of the importance of reality shows and entertainment news

Far ahead at portraying environmental issues as wacko threats to family and economy

Twisting the pursuit of happiness into a god-given right to shortsighted, selfish greed

Granting ever more control to the rich while patronizingly-fleecing the shrinking middle class

Measuring the success of political candidates through their fundraising results

Exporting our pollution to third world industry then scolding them on human rights

Being governed by multi-generational, aristocratically-inbred, star-power families

Rigging voting districts upon our election to ensure a continuing stream of victories

Requiring illegal workers since we made the jobs, conditions and pay so very poor we wont do them

Institutionalizing a paralyzed two-party system as if it were mandated by our sacred constitution

Profiting handsomely by encouraging polarization through destructive and divisive opinionating

Encouraging a faux economic growth through the promotion of negative savings rates

Performing phony political litmus tests like gun control, abortion, flag burning and gay marriage

Increasing our infant mortality and bringing back vitamin deficiency, TB and malnutrition

Smugly relying on disappearing non-renewables for all our inefficient daily activities

Cynically rejecting sustainability as an expensive hoax spun by elitist liberal conspirators

Keeping the military in check by granting it a hefty budget increase every single year

Speaking with a country twang to mask your elitist background and ownership by the corporations

Stalling progress by staying on expensively-crafted but childishly-simple message in virtuoso fashion

Scoffing with a god-granted exceptionist superiority at global opinion, morality and lifestyle

So-called 3^rd world Costa Rica has a higher literacy rate than the undeveloping United States

Mindless Consumer Magic

Anytime it gets kinda hot, I just twist a thermostat and some good old cool air begins to flow

The CO2 from that coal-fired power plant plays no role in our Traditional Family Values©

I slide my credit card at the pump and drive away alone in my 9 passenger vehicle

We’re conveniently supporting terrorists with every tankful so that we can fight them there

The rain splashes off all that nice smooth concrete into little rivulets as we drive

The oily residues which taint the feeder creeks are absolutely no concern of ours

Our shiny trash cans are overstuffed with recyclable materials that we call our garbage

Hey, let the wackos sort that shit out after we roll our kids futures to the curb

With a simple twist of my wrist, fresh clean hot and cold water flows from the tap

I don’t know where it comes from or care where the shit I put on my green lawn goes

It’s magic how the bulldozers turn non-productive wetlands into family neighborhoods

There’s no way these blessed suburbs represent brutally efficient habitat destruction

If I get hungry while I’m upon my busy way, I idle on in thru a fast food drive thru lane

Later on I do my part and stuff all of that packaging waste into some convenient dumpster

We proudly support our troops with plastic decals affixed to our imported cars

They’re made in fume-filled sweatshops overseas by ignorant peasant wage slaves

Our unearned home equity was an amazing source of funds for vacations and toys

Now our interest rate is too high, we owe more than it’s worth, so we deserve a bailout

My son was uniquely gifted and showed great potential at an extremely early age

The doctors have ascribed his lack of success and bad attitude to ADHD and poor schools

It’s magic how the stores brim with things I just saw on TV and simply have to have

Mom and Dad always buy for me so that I will remain their friend and still talk to them

Simply pushing buttons on the remote from the couch brings up 150 big screen channels

There’s not too much on that we really watch, but that monster sucks down the juice 24x7x365

I joyfully immerse myself in the spectacle of commercial sports at any opportunity

I love watching overpaid black criminals brutally bash each other, clad in shiny, tight spandex

I love the freedom of the open road and the wind in my hair on my Harley-Davidson

It sits for months depreciating in the way in the garage while I miss a few more payments

There’s nothing quite so relaxing as quietly sitting and fishing on a peaceful lake

We rip across the water on 200 dirty horsepower which exhausts straight down into the water

The freedom of the open road beckons us from the comfort of our mobile home

7 miles a gallon, tons of CO2 and a noisy generator so we can watch our DVDs in AC’d comfort

It’s magic how the meat we love appears wrapped in plastic so very clean and safe

We don’t see or want to know about the filthy feedlots and those bloody slaughterhouses

We see a future filled with more bright consumption and happy indulgence for the kids

It’s a wonderful and magic world made simply for our pleasure, convenience and comfort

Time Could Not Heal

Time did not heal the wounds he wore as he attended his own solemn burial

The passing of so many hurried years did not make them any wiser

Their broadcasted fantasies were not meant to have prepared the populace

Endless dull repetition did not bring her to some flashpoint of enlightenment

Sadly, the fear and worry that always drove them never lead to that happily ever after

All the time that convenience saved them was not stockpiled for their later enjoyment

Their passing would not heal the awful recognitions they suffered during their last days

There was no happy guided segue from this laying tubed up in a paralyzed desperation

That ever-pending eternity would disperse their strong feelings but never change them

Forever could not make up for any of their suffering, despite other’s pious assurances

For time could heal them no more once they had gone off and left us for good

The light-hearted empty lives of some, ironically enough, proved as useful as any pious brooding

Time neither erased his sins nor granted him the forgiveness his victims finally learned

Distance did not separate them from the memories they would always carry inside

No matter who those sad women slept with, they always awoke with themselves

The many long years did not help him to accept his own hideous apparition

She always carried that pain in a place that was walled off, but not inaccessible

They always sought something indefinable, though there was nothing left to tempt them

Time would certainly not heal the loneliness of her isolation during those final years

His healthy lifestyle was of no use forever once all his cells had ceased activity

They even dreamed it was not time that they needed, but devices that might save it for them

As he slowly faded, his only wish was that he could simply resume his empty, hectic life

The eternity that awaited her was oblivious to her many selfless sacrifices

His passing did not bring him the long-awaited pleasure of seeing his many enemies in Hell

Sadly, their quiet acceptance of lifelong suffering did not grant them an eternity with god

Time did not even try to heal their pain as their spreading wakes never quite faded to nothing

There would be no paradoxical heaven which included both the wise hermit and the great leader

Time could not halt the dispersion of any molecules that made up their hypothetical eternal souls

My Spoon-Fed Denials

I let them deny others the health care that might have threatened their fat bonuses

I integrated that unmerciful Social Darwinism right into my canned Traditional Family Values®

I merrily defaulted on my overdrawn home loan right alongside all the other negative savers

I blotted out their suffering in a haze of preoccupation with my artificial stress and worry

I realized that gutted landscapes and dirty air were but a small price to pay for our progress

I said I did not mean to smash the doors of their teeny cars climbing down from my truck

I saw that we could not retain all our wondrous choices without market-based medicine

I ignored so-called scientific experts at the well-rehearsed urging of politicos in corporate ads

I adopted respected business leaders lack of interest in the mistreatment of illegales

I went right along in denial of any fiscal holocaust brought on by chronic overspending

I knew that health statistics were twisted by those seeking to socialize our healthcare

I saw there was simply too much uncertainty to risk taking any expensive climate action

I spurned the defeatists unspoken contention that we should fight them here not there

I never even considered the gaming and credit industries as foolish wasteful scams

I let them put off our infrastructure needs as I made my own minimum monthly payments

I learned not to be so affronted by their disgusting political presence in leadership positions

I denied my guilt and looked forward, without any comment, to clearing my good name

I laughed scornfully when they said we were all robbers ransacking other’s futures

I did not notice the lack of prevention for diseases insurers strove not to pay to treat

I realized that Europeans denied our god-granted exceptionist role at their own risk

I let them subsidize their corporate owners ethanol boondoggles to try and crush solar power

I lived in denial thinking that people, the government and my wife could all change

I chose to ignore that we could no longer swim in or eat the fish from our lakes

I did not check their sources and later backed them in compounding their mistakes

I missed the poverty increasing, the middle class disappearing and the rich getting richer

I evinced not the slightest hesitation in continuing to spiral our defense spending

I let outsiders bulldoze the farms, meadows, forests and wetlands for quick, one-time profits

I lay sweating in fear that the socialists would not allow me to choose my own doctor

I learned to overlook the ignorant, noisy and wasteful wreckreation that they so enjoyed

I never even mentioned our own overpopulation being the root of most of our problems

I calmly accepted that we must always spend more to prepare for our certain next war

I never believed things would just collapse due to our refusal to fund national infrastructure

I scoffed with everyone else at the foolish antics of the environmental wackos

I accepted without real thought that it might require a lawyer to get to see a doctor

I calmly awaited the new and better jobs they had promised me as I was being outsourced

I denied other’s true convictions and proclaimed ours alone as the only real true Word of God

My Search Results Are Ready

I ran for the canyons but they was dammed, flooded and already way silted up

I made for the mountains but them empty second homes kept me fenced way outside

I went out to float the rivers but the drought had turned them into dirty little dribbles

Took off for the woods but they had burned down and dried to blackened ashes

Left on a road trip for safe family adventure and found a string of filthy restrooms

Went fishing with the kids but had to tell them that we couldn’t eat our poisoned catch

Fought traffic down to the ocean to watch as strange and dangerous objects washed ashore

The Doc cured my lifestyle-induced disease just in time to make his golf game

Headed for the wilderness but my GPS wasn’t working so I went on over to the mall

Took the speedboat down to the reservoir but there was no water left for to ride on

Got up real early to enjoy the quiet and heard brave construction workers roaring by

Said I’d rather fight them here than there and was labeled as a cowardly cut-and-runner

Got all ready for the winter but every day stayed real warm and it was way too dry

Called for action on climate change so they set the clocks back a whole week later, in the fall

Went searching for the great West from one chain restaurant and hotel to another

I journeyed to our great outdoors and found the discarded toxic remnants of a meth lab

Climbed a rocky mountain and was passed by the many hurried hi-tech peak baggers

I went to hike the mystic arroyos but they were clean choked up with exotic species

I sought the ancient wisdom of the Indians, and so I journeyed to their new casinos

I watched the electrically sprinkled fossil water simply evaporate, shining in the wind

Talked to the wise men in their giant pickups and they told me that they’d just tell me what

Listened, mesmerized by the agents looks and voice, as she pitched the mountain sunsets

Learned to help clamor for the always more, the ever bigger and the even cheaper

Worked to realize our manifest destiny by plopping strip malls from coast to coast

Sought out that shady grove I had heard about but got turned around on the interstate

Rode out of the valley and gazed back upon the ozone layer that covered up our town

Loved that down home country music as it brayed down to my pickup via satellite radio

I searched for the wisdom of the elderly and they told me I just best not get too old

Quietly paddled our canoe through the wakes of pleasure trawlers and jet ski madness

Meditated to the blessed randomly and sporadic high-decibel outbursts of our progress

I enjoyed the financed memories of a lifetime at handicap accessible vista overlook points

Heard god’s amplified word at our friendly megachurch and then stopped down to Wal*Mart

I went to seek the wisdom of the retired CEOs but their compounds were walled and locked

I sought the peace of the starry desert but found it full of wackos, bristling with guns

Put great faith in freedom of the press then saw that it depended solely on selling advertising

I went back to eat at Grandma’s house once more but Dad had sold it off way, way long ago

Yo, Conservatives: Do You Really?

Do you really ignore their careless toxic dust way up your nose and far down your lungs

Are you good with harshly ignorant laborers throwing up cheap shit all in your face

Is their flimsy pre-fab on flattened and devastated earth a relief to your tired eyes

Does that smoggy orange haze that you drive through soften your haunted outlook

Do you really fulfill your spirit from some musty old book supposedly written by a god

Can you actually enjoy that giant, poorly-engineered, way-overpriced gas guzzler

Do you think the lame media in which you immerse yourself helps you to grope your way thru

Are you still so sure you won’t live long enough to need any Medicare or Social Security

Do you really think energy efficiency spells the end of what you mistake for comfort

Do you perhaps take a vicarious pride in our cowboy diplomacy and wars of liberation

Are you gathering cosmic truth in your cycle of meaningless work and mindless recreation

Has living for today and grabbing all that you can not even worn you just a little bit thin

Does it grow difficult to lose yourself in prescribed meds, alcohol, religion or media rapture

Can you truly believe that our blind and greedy rush can continue even another 100 years

Have you actually considered the size and permanence of your stumbling daily footprint

Did you ever answer if you’re better off in today’s version of Morning In America

Do you really think if you just keep the family safe and happy everything will simply work out OK

Does the blasting noise of all the cars and harleys and trucks somehow blend to soothe you

Can you find safe and quiet refuge in the crumbling home that’s worth less than you owe

Is yours a parallel worklife with the next piece of veal in one more prairie dog cubicle farm

Do you really think that polarized 2 party gridlock inevitably gropes us forward

Must you judge all your actions with regard to convenience and time savings

Are you ok with those who fed chalky poison to babies helping provide food for your children

Do you really feel that things will just work out and we’ll muddle through like always

Do you really think it’s progress to channelize the rivers and fill in all the wetlands

Are you maybe only accelerating blindly toward some as yet unspecified objectives

Will you really reflect back in satisfied wisdom as you are fed and excrete thru medical tubes

Does their sporadic and uncontrolled noise really not rattle your uninsured teeth

Do you really not notice the billion wasteful and paranoid lights blotting out all the stars

Is adjusting the thermostat to your comfort really your only solution to climate change

Have you truly found peace of mind in a round of golf or an expensive pedicure

Do you not weary of making this or that hole a little bit bigger while moving it elsewhere

Do you really ignore the endless tolling of extinction, heat, drought and pollution

Aren’t you often looking forward for weeks to vacations that you do not even remember later

Can you actually believe that unencumbered greed is, in reality, sacred enlightened self-interest

Do you really sleep soundly thru the night, wake up refreshed - just to do it all once again

The Lights Are Going Out All Over

The lights are slowly going out all over

All around our engines are starting to shut down

No longer does the blue entertainment light dance out of every living room

More bridges are simply too unsafe to even try and cross

The stores are closing up, all across the little towns

Barbecues are flickering out all across this land that god had blessed

Monstrous RVs sit empty for lack of good cheap fuel

Bluehairs wait in vain for their outsourced contract foreign servants

Billboards are becoming illegible due to wind and rain and sun

The water taps only flow a trickle of dark and smelly brine

The roads seem to be growing ever harder to negotiate

Halted trains are blocking intersections in a mostly haphazard fashion

Can’t pick up no more early morning traffic scans or upbeat weather reports

Tightfaced mommies ferrying soccer broods are growing ever scarcer

Vacuous mall tweenies indolently draining daddy’s cash are disappearing daily

Our power just shuts off randomly for hours each and every day

MickieD even runs out of burgers with increasing regularity

Been standin on line for day-old factory white bread for hours, all the time

Bulldozers are sitting idle and power tools lay listless with no energy to drive them

Middle Management’s micro death march projects just aren’t moving us anymore

Toilets aren’t flushing so there’s clumps and tissue everywhere in the bushes

The president assures us that our ingenious people can meet all of these challenges and more

Suburban survivalists have taken over all the forest campgrounds

Wal*Marts are closing up all over cause China’s cut them off

Credit markets are frozen up again but there’s no bailout on the way this time

Military convoys are halted as the soldiers go on patrol to look for gasoline

The garbage trucks don’t come too much and the stuff has piled up real high

They say the fundamentals are still solid but it just doesn’t matter anymore

My downloads don’t hardly ever finish cause so many servers are simply gone

Monday night football even got called off last week cause the stadium lights were out

Formerly swaggering apartment cowboys cant find beer at their favorite stores

The cops are always hurrying off somewhere but never seem to stop

Saw tractors and combines sitting empty out in stubbly, unkempt fields

Staffs at all the hospitals are being replaced by unpaid security guards

The tourist has disappeared as an income source for hungry locals of every stripe

It’s best just to sit quietly in the churches listening to mumbling priests and watching candles burn

Living In Our SUV

It’s not too bad now that we got the three of them pushed up back to back

Sawed off the steering wheels and put cardboard on the bedroom windows

We got a couple plastic buckets marked for carrying water in and our peepee out

It’s a prime spot on the old interstate real close to the dump where we all work

Took my little sister down to the river for her first  bath just last week

Momma still ain’t strong enough to walk and she looks really pale
I’monna try to find her a star magazine as I work the trash today

Yup, we’re hearing that the fundamentals are still looking pretty strong

There’s lots of stuff to burn but the fumes get pretty smelly up inside the cab

Someday we’ll take over a big rig down at the truck stop and all live like kings

Every once in a while one of them black helicopters flies by real low overhead

Sometimes they drop them sacks of protein pills and that stuff we call happy candy

Our little dog caught 3 rats for us last week and we had a dandelion salad

I found a paper insert with all the stuff that used to be on sale ever saturday

Them scabs that started on my brother have covered pert near his whole arm

We think we can get a microloan to go buy some of those nice new orange jump suits

A group of us found a mound and laid out a cross made of stones up on top

Just last month somethin they called a jet flew over real high and on by so serene

It’s always hot except when the giant storms blow in and wash away the urine smells

We know from all the screaming not to make the slightest sound all night

Jesus is bringing guns and sweets and coffee said the man who killed my uncle

They lynched a guy who ate a dog that was guarding a family’s drying skunk meat

We attack some of the people who wander by and some of them steal from us

They’re looking at robust growth going forward because the basics are all in place

It’s great when they scatter those paper leaflets that help us start our cooking fires

My dad is the oldest left since all the gray hairs died a couple springs ago

They tell me it’ll soon be my duty to start having as many kids as I can, with their help

Daddy says our SUVs used to get packed to overflowing with food and clothes and toys

That fellow with his pencil was going on about some post-modern apocalypse

Jennie saw a camouflaged vehicle with guys inside in plastic suits and face masks

Some boys found 2 bottles of whiskey and raped my sister and then crippled each other

The women have all taken to wailing real mournful like around noon every day

Fires start up and flame out of control day and night and the burns look just awful

Mommie cried as she told me that this bleeding just meant I was now a woman

Somebody told me I better hush up unless I can start to speak some English

The bearded man said if I just believe, a reward of eternal paradise awaits me

Steps Toward Creating A Sustainable Destruction

Gonna get to universal healthcare that the government won’t play any part in

Looking to voluntarily solve climate change without hurting our great economy

We’ll maintain a woman’s choice as well as stop this murder of the innocent unborn

Protecting our right to bear arms while getting assault weapons away from criminals

We’ll preserve your privacy and secretly gather personal data vital to our national security

On our way towards reconciling literalist faith with the latest scientific research

Must remain the world’s only superpower while curbing all this military waste

We can reduce our slavish foreign dependence with the tough love of Big Oil and Clean Coal

We’ll find a way to fill our rotten jobs cheaply without using any illegal immigrants

We can end the global war on islamo-facism and we won’t ever have to cut and run

It’s possible to curb our national obesity and not even dictate to people what to eat

We’ll reconcile our treasured civil rights with the biblical ban upon gay marriage

There is a way to retain our beloved land yachts and still get cleaner, higher MPGs

We’re betting corporate agribusiness can self-regulate but still offer up safe, clean food

Surely they can save their rain forests as we recast golf course water hazards as healthy wetlands

Greedy corporate monomaniacs really are morphing into the wise stewards of our society

We’ll have them save more but continue to spend their retirement taxes immediately

Gonna protect tiny blind fish nobody catches as we keep our desert lawns real green

Giving grizzlies and wolves a place while protecting noble ranchers on federal lands

Won’t be pressured by the poll numbers but we must be attentive to the people’s will

Cannot permit their extremist agenda but we must break this legislative gridlock

We’ll continue to enjoy the fruits of cheap asian labor but end their immoral suffering

Our economic ills must be solved without any sacrifices by hardworking consumers

It’s possible to redraw districts in our favor while being sure that every vote still counts

We shouldn’t have to sacrifice any comforts to achieve a proud energy independence

A few tax incentive packages would likely engage the market to curb CO2 emissions

We’ll strike a political compromise to save both hydro power and a couple wild salmon

We will depend on gaming industry taxes as we promote personal fiscal responsibility

We can reach out to the rest of the world in the exceptionist manner our god intended

We must curb our vast wastes but without mandating lame recycling or cost to our convenience

Let us encourage sensible and thrifty habits without threatening consumer spending

We can feed them sugar, not make them brush then have them go find affordable dental care

We’ll force foreign markets open but grant subsidies and raise tariffs here at home

Have to stimulate the all-important economy even as we get this deficit under control

Corporate politicians shall wisely market their donor agenda while pursuing our common good

We’ll place almighty God atop our government even as we condemn islamic religious fanaticism

I Stood So Limply By

I stood by, and the best that I could muster up was just a couple squishy tears

I simply watched, numbed with shock, and did not stop the bulldozers gouging

I did not raise a finger as we eviscerated the very habitat that kept us all alive

I sat in silence reading of the disappearance of one species after another

I barely noticed our chances for survival as they disappeared in my rearview mirror

I did not press them to build things meant to last or which might even be repaired

I just let them go on de-humanizing animals into identical factory protein units

I bred, in a tacit acceptance of our witless and self-destructive overpopulation

I never even questioned that foolish, wasteful and expensive necessity known as war

I let them preach greedy unsustainable profit at the expense of all our futures

I watched as they spent more than they had on destructive toys that they quickly cast aside

I stood by as they made our important decisions in talks with their very own personal saviors

I deflected the many unrelated facts which pointed towards the need for real change

I observed from a distance as smugly smirking politicos confidently called the shots

I stood by and let simple mono-maniacal control freaks press their warped personal agendas upon us

I turned away from mounting evidence that we brought on our own slide into a dark abyss

I sat grimly on their sidelines as they played their shortsighted and selfish game

I stood by doing nothing to stop myself from being part of all that I condemned

I let them twist my angry silence into an approval of their boundless greed as our guiding light

I avoided conflict and let them carry out the wanton destruction they anointed as our progress

I simply kibitzed while they de-constructed this living earth and all its systems

I did not lift a finger as the lilies of the field were replaced by barren, hot, black asphalt

I looked right past the poverty, suffering and illness as I hurried on by to work every day

I stood by as it got hotter, drier and dirtier - convinced there was really nothing I could do

I only passively ignored their mindless, but expensive, mind-numbing media spectacles

I foolishly tended just to my own implanted needs thinking so would things work out alright

I stood by with but a blank look as a series of precious wonders disappeared forever

I did not get up and shout, much less so much as raise a hand in mild disagreement

I never even once protested the ecological holocaust of our convenience-driven advances

I stood by in silence as the teeming masses wasted or polluted all of our basic resources

I did not clean up the roadsides, beaches, rivers, lakes and forests that we fouled

I never mentioned how I despised their all-consuming pursuit of consumer goods

I stood by with hands free but not helping those who tried honestly to do better

I merely watched in amazement as we grew fatter and dumber, sicker and lazier

I did not speak out nearly enough to counter their glib lies and foolish promises

I leaned my fat belly on a shovel while the potholes grew and multiplied all around me

Choices That Help Define Us

Is it that expensive new car and the big-screen hi-def DVD-TV?

Maybe just a warm old wool sweater and a good book when it’s cold

There’s an extra trip to the mall and lots of trash cans for the packaging

Or recycling all that is feasible even if nobody makes you, or pays you to do it

How about that 8 foot high pickup with the custom exhausts

Then there’s that cute little hybrid with all its hitech gizzies

Is it the money we shell out for expensive food, drink and the falsely servile help,

Rather than the work that goes into the creation of a meal on our own

Could be an oversized faux palace tended by a legion of anonymous illegales

Or possibly crawling on your knees to repair something that’s gotten broken

How about racing your son on loud smoky snowmobiles thru a blurred forest

Instead of snowshoeing in silence, searching for peace in that good silence

You could download a hundred songs and strike out with the iPod

Or strum a few chords and scribble out a couple verses of your own

Relax on the couch with beer and calorie-laden snacks for the big game

Alternatively, using the Internet, go into depth on some non-trivial issue

Is it struggling to find ways to keep spending more than you earn

Maybe embracing both hard work as well as building up a bit of savings

Hanging out barefoot in shorts and tees in a monstrous house all during winter

Turning down a more efficient heating system and dressing for the seasons

Saving time at the drive-thru and chowing down fast while still on your way

Eating stuff that didn’t come out of cans, that you cooked up on your own

Is it get-rich-quick schemes involving currencies, commodities and derivatives

Maybe ploddingly saving via conservative investments, year after year

Could it be first class flights to expensive resorts and fancy restaurants

Or going cheaply, traveling widely, eating locally and wearing little jewelry

There’s belief directed by holy books, prophets and literalist, revealed truths

Then there’s simple faith in the human struggle against the inevitable void

Maybe it’s always waiting for something that quickly disappears into the blur

Or is it striving to take pleasure in the task and not just its momentary completion

Having others just do as much for you as quickly as you can sign the bill

Or attaining a bit of technical mastery over your house, its contents and the cars