God bless America,
one nation indivisible,
tidy-assed tight-lipped front-yard lives,
back-yard underground-movie minds
full of million dollar jealousy/envy.

Why can't I have what they have?
I wish I did.
God-damn those foreigners.
Why don't they
stay where they belong?
They don't belong in America,
home of the brave,
land of the free,
all men created equal.

Ask someone of color.

Illegals
sneak here;
take all the jobs.
We have to apply for welfare.
They don't even pay taxes.
Maybe i should cheat.
Everyone else does.
Look at the presidents.
Look at their families,
look at their friends.
They lie,
steal,
make millions.

I have to work,
fearing loss of my job
to foreigners and illegal emigrants.
It takes money to make money.
Look at the doctors.
Look at the lawyers.
Look at the politicians.
You don't see them going hungry
on the streets.

Those street people
can't be trusted either.
Look at them.
Look at their faces.
They'd steal just like politicians.
Do they have guns?
I'm not giving them one cent.
I work for my living.
If they had the chance
they'd rape my daughter,
steal everything
I've worked all my life to get.
Fuck them!
They could have gotten educations.
They could have jobs.
They don't want to work.
They want everything free.
For nothing!
They dream of winning the lottery.
They dream of suing someone
for everything they have.

Everyone is ripping someone off,
aren't they?

TV news images;
Warhol/Lichtenstein painting
media-scrubbed news.
Death and violence served-up
from almost serious-faced pretty people,
seriousness switching instantly
to smiles
as topics change
on tele-prompters.
Does the machine tell them
what kind of expression to wear as
they spoon out voyeuristic titillation?
Eyes watching for blood.
Spirits wounded by school.
Spirits wounded by war.
Spirits wounded by government.
Law demanding what no laws should.
Isolated in security locked metal-screened shells,
fearing mindless brutalities fed hourly
on the god-tube shrine
to sensational addicted minds.

Show us the bodies.
Show us the gore.
Tell us what to fear.
Tell us who to hate.
Tell us to trust leaders.
Leaders know best.
Don't question so much.
Others know better.
Science will save us.
Technology will find answers
to the damage done.

Civilization.
Bent by greed,
unquestioned by the majority.

Fuck the owls and birds,
flowers and wild places.
Tame the savage earth.
Bend it to serve immediate greed,
need for more and more.
and more and more
Cut the trees.
It's my job.
So what
if there are only a few years
of ancient tree cutting left?
I may be dead by then.

Hide in triple locked homes,
guns on our laps,
shoot any mother-fucker
setting foot on our land!

They're all out to get us.
Call the cops.
Give them your guns.
Trust them if they're white.
Fear them if they're not.
Mow the front lawn
so neighbors don't talk.

Inside iron-shelled rubber-wheeled vehicles,
push and cut and honk.
Hate and kill thousands
more than wars.

Are we safe if the doors are locked?
Where are our kids?
Oh God,
where are our kids?

Just say no!
Voices cute as television commercials.
Clever little adult children
practice television host smiles.
Dress like stars.
Know everything by the time they're six.

Oh, mother!
Really!

No longer safe in our cars?

The man on the corner,
isn't he the one we saw on TV's
most wanted?
Where are our kids?
Oh God,
where are our kids?

Athletes and cheerleaders.

Did you see the `talks’ and the `soaps’?
The sex?
The needs?

Tight teenage body magazine covers.

You don't have to look your age!
Lose twenty pounds without exercise or diet!
Stay in shape!
Join a club!
Be safe!
Get a club for your car!

Underground movie minds.
Dark images.
Rap violence grinding thrusting torsos.
Hat backwards automatic weapons.
Bleeding children in school-yards.
Got your colors on?
Got your gun?
Where can we go when suburbia's gone?

Where are the kids?
Oh God,
Where are the kids

Tidy-assed tight-lipped front-yard lives.
One nation indivisible.
God Bless America.

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