Lost in America

I think this belongs in general discussion.I haven't attempted lyrical writing for a long time.

I feel the loss everywhere: As we drive down the highways with the same twenty shops mile after mile, in cars from Detroit that are no good, psst gas station after gas station with the same three dollar prices, eating two all beef patties and a hundred additives, back to homes with more gadgets and unending equity loans, relaxing in the glow of televisions with those 500 channels and nothing on, calling friends and family on phone lines that are tapped, about the latest political pantomime that passes as debate, with not a heckler to be found, only gotcha questions looking for a 30 second negative sound bite, to ward off the votes that may never be counted, for a congress with four health care lobbyists to every representative, while businesses bust trying to pay the insurance bills competing with one dollar a day labor and the top one percent get 30% more each year, as the profits roll in from the privatized wars, and our caskets come home without a sound. Amongst the din and confusion we understand that 'this isn't what we wanted', but our dumbed down culture demands simple scapegoats, so we turn on each other, silence the last dissenting voice for Thanksgiving, and wonder what we've lost.

kick.

with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

I'll look him up.