Why Wait?

Who pulls ya strings?

Fillin' ya life empty with things

Masters of ya fear

Days becoming years

Got their hooks in ya belly

And their thoughts in ya ears

There's puppeteers, engineers

Performers, producers, 

666 seducers, 

but boy, you just a consumer, 

a daily grinder, 

a back n' forth zoomer

Clean suit, clean cut, just a little gut

But don't stumble, keep the pace

Welcome to the dollar shave rat race 

White lies and your eyes on the prize

Cast away from darkening skies

Days become years 

And years flying by

Who's gotcha mind?

No worries, we got ya favorite show,

on at its regular time

Nightmares invading our dreams

While we live ignoring the schemes

plain to see,

You don't know, but you feel what I mean. 

Pouring our blood, hopin' red becomes green 

pretending it's our hunger, not our greed. 

Wake! Don't wait and see!

One, two, three, You! stand up next to me!

Times are changing and the moment is here: fear or struggle, what's it gonna be?

Grip the mic, 

wit poetry takin' flight

Ink the page! Write!

Let ya pen spark the light

Cut the strings, spread the flame, 

Stand up as rebels to tame

and call 'em out,

Call 'em out by their names

Times, Byes, and Lights in Your Eyes

Time passing slow, 

time speeding past

It's funny how no single moment 

ever seems to last 

The sweetest slip by fast

Even the slowest skip right on past

We wake and begin 

counting down to our final breath, 

from the first moment, 

less time is all we have left

Though through the years we gain

as we grow and share with others 

human joy and pain,

Bask in the sun, dance in the rain

the fact remains 

that from birth to death, 

less time is all we really have left

Hour hand signing a late night rhyming
 with time ticking, and my ticker timing

"What is life without time?"

Is the thought filling my mind 

Electrons bouncing from ear to ear, 

side to side, time slipping by

These forces we can't describe

Gravity pullin' our hearts open wide

Time rollin' on from our start 

Takin' us to the other side as we depart

Without time, could we live and never die?

Without time, could we ever feel alive? 

Ones, Tens, Hundreds, Thousands, Hundreds of Thousands, Millions, Billions, Trillions, Zero

A million millionaires
Feeding the world to their heirs
Livin' on the dividends
Never breathin' that thick foreign air

Endless wealth creation
Borne of man's machinations
Capitalization and contamination
Floodin' the market to the point of saturation

Find salvation in reasonable rationalization
Never mind the collapse and catastrophe
The radiation pumpin' to the sea
People gotta be free to destroy all that we see
in the name of the Almighty Economy!
Hear the call of that 21st century Manifest Destiny

May we be blessed as we bend and stress
Even when we break may we never rest
Day and night, burning fires to fill our desires
It's the Almighty Economy callin'
To our hearts dead in our chests
And at the end of the day,
May a bank account test our success
And may our sins never be confessed

Never a need to arrest the flow
Growth being sown
The order of the day:
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,
They proclaim behind the podium up on that stage
The sales pitch is always the same
VOTE for CHANGE!

Capitalism is the way
Just get with it, play the game
God is green and He wouldn't have it any other way
Opportunity and happiness await!
You're livin' in the golden age!

Labor arbitrage hidden behind the mirage
Of prosperity, sea to shining sea
the products of free trade being built
by an army of wage slaves
Brothers in chains
Hidden, forgotten, and barely paid

Back home, just close your eyes
and let reality fade
Live the boom, forget the bust
Let your soul go corrupt and rust
Feed your passion, fulfill ya lust
The world is all for you
And you leave none for us

Get what you can,
Want what you can't
Give in when ya brain is
Tellin' you to pursue
All you can consume
Chasin' the dream all the time, all at once
It's never ending, there's never enough

And when we turn the page
When we see the poison underground
and the venom flowin' through our veins
Will we tremble knowin' we've got numbered days?
Will we turn to our brothers, the slaves?
Will we look to the Almighty Economy
and pray that it saves?

Deck Hands and Chairs for the Band

There's pain and despair

Rain falls and clouds fill the air 

Fire flames and wars rage

Rats gettin' fat trapped in their cage

Living without a care 

like the world isn't ours to share. 

History repeating, page after page. 

It's time to open your eyes if ya dare

Time to face the nightmare

Or bury your head, say instead 

"Others troubles aren't ours to bear..." 

Stop, stare, then when ya see 

the darkness closin' in from everywhere

pull an about-face on the nightmare

Return to ya bubble

Forget the toil, turmoil,

the bodies buried 

And smokin' rubble

Double down on life 

without a trouble or care

Bury your head anywhere!

Keep flipping through ad books named

Cosmo, People, and Vanity Fair

Things fallin' apart 

while we grind out senseless music

Pretending it's art

Poppin pills to "lose it!"

Life's tough, but Molly'll soothe it

Jaws clenchin' when ya use it

500mg of Mg oughta loosen it

After she gets ya mind 

to grind with the music 

Auctions for pointless art

Insanity and vanity off the chart

The status elite doesn't come cheap

Wealthy sheep celebrating 

the ordinarily temporary contemporary 

Embarrassingly exemplary 

Of logic and reason's scarcity

Millions for a painting 

While millions die waiting 

Caught in wars raging over

Finance and trading

The world needs saving

And it's humans I'm blaming

We're reading words without meaning
and it's got the masses teeming for more

Another Hollywood war 

knocking at the door

The next feud, the next fight

All keeping reality far from sight

Something's wrong, 

but it's got us feeling right

Distraction in action as we listen to the voice of a generation
who's got nothing to say. 

Applying "genius" to money and fame
showin that fool and genius can mean the same

Feuds and disputes staged on stage

Actors and feigned rage
just selling ads on the entertainment page

Grabbing all they can before the fame fades
and empty accolades
are replaced by empty days. 

The masses in a maze
driven to a daze
by flashing lights and variations on the same
that never fail to amaze. 

Craze after craze
dancing to the same songs that we've always played. 

In time there comes a day

When the piper says it's time to pay

And what will we say 

When we've got pockets empty

With no change in the tray?

It's not that ya always 

gotta have something to say

And there's nothing wrong 

with playing just to play

But we're neck deep

In the mass of trash 

Always adding to the heap

Piling higher and higher, day after day

Just to collect from the millions willing
to pay for the rehash of noise and scrap from yesterday

And it seems as if today, 

While the ship tips and sinks

Nobody blinks or thinks

of a single thing to say

To the band and deck hands as they

continue to work and play.