For a price

Continuity
Community
For a price
You can pay someone to listen
to speak softly to you over the telephone line
to make someone strip for you on the internet
to wake you up in the morning
and to hold you until you fall asleep
but they can't quite
save you from your life
they have not yet figured out how
to make things seem less
so they give you more
tell you what to want
what to believe
and if you go along
they'll even tell you what you think.

Their best weapons
really are
manufactured distraction
while we are left talking about deception
the greatest of which
is that advertising mantra
you can't get out of your head
or that idea of beauty that you dress yourself in
starve yourself for
burden yourself with
And they dangle priorities over your head
like a flag
remember those who have so little
but don't really think about them
except when it's convenient
once a year
or during a fundraiser
until YOU become the tax write off
that you never thought you'd be
As they tempt you with that idea
of a family
who you can only spend time with on the weekend
when you're too tired to move or think.

The leaders tell you to shop more
for the good of the nation
bringing people together
to praise the god of mass consumption
while bemoaning those who can't afford food
as being lazy
"criminal elements"
"social drains"
the blame
for the debt
for the war
for the fact that others work themselves to death
in the name of a dream
they may never wake up from.

As credit cards are being used to buy groceries
As the national debt is being bought by slave labor
As troops are playing Santa for Christmas
bringing children the food and bombs of capitalism
gift-wrapped as "democracy"
As families fear every carbomb will bring them the worst possible news
while the Army keeps changing deployment rules
As flags waving becomes the new fashion statement
and bumper magnets replace t-shirt politics
hey
the only reality I want is the one I can hold in my two hands
the only reality I know is the one I can hold
in my heart
the only reality I claim is the one that you give
when you promise to fight forever
for those who have no voice
who have no food
whose language and culture brand them "terrorist"

For those who can't pay that price
to have everything
to hate everything
and destroy whatever doesn't suit them at the time
hey
the only love I can give
is the one that refuses to hate you
the only family I want
is the one that values a world of equals
the only shelter I seek
is the one that is open to everyone
because I have nothing to offer
but words
to fight words
to fight hurt
with a natural valium
to find ways around alienation
and to create windows in walls where the doors
are all guarded by guns
hey
find a way with me
can't you please
find a way with me
to fight the power politicians' iron grip
as their fingers form ghetto walls
around people's hearts

As they make mutant and toxic food readily available
but cringe at the idea of universal health care
I know you'll step up
and speak for me
when they come to steal the last glimpse of hope
by walling up the last free space in the mind
with reality t.v.
I know you will stand here
until they take the last limp protesting body away
even after they replace hostile words
with expanding political prisons, police brutality and tanks
until peace wins the last heart bent on war
I know you'll remain
saying all that they have tried to silence
refusing to be bought or sold
refusing to buy those who cannot protect themselves
refusing to sell a life to protect your own.

--dedicated to those who hold true to their belief that a different, more humane world
is possible and try to create it every day, in every way they can--