Freedom is a natural right
Those who take it are criminals.
No excuse is good enough,
And every occurrence is evil.
Some try to tell you a big lie
That it is all for the better good.
If you fall for this brand of talk
Your head must be solid wood.

Knock on wood
Step on a crack
Try to get your dignity back
After you sold
Your own soul.
You are totally lost
You’re stuck in a hole.

Too many of us live inside a
Bankrupt daily existence.
We all work hard pay bills
And offer no resistance
To those who change rules
That never hurt themselves.
They only worry about their wealth
And never about anyone else.

Knock on wood
Step on a crack
Try to get your dignity back
After you sold
Your own soul.
You are totally lost
You’re stuck in a hole.

No, it doesn’t have to be this way
We can stand up and fight back.
We can change the twisted laws;
Get ourselves onto the right track.
But that means we cannot accept
The dangerous fear of status quo.
We have realize that this is not
The way things just have to go.

Knock on wood
Step on a crack
Try to get your dignity back
After you sold
Your own soul.
You are totally lost
You’re stuck in a hole.

Korea
Vietnam
Grenada
Iraq
So many lost lives
We can never take back;
So many ******* wars
We all have lost track.
Panama
Serbia
Syria
Iraq

What were we really doing there?
When did they attack us? Where?
When did they threaten my liberty
To buy an extra big SUV?
When did they land here with artillery
To threaten the freedom of you and of me?
When did these countries declare war
That caused us to gear up once more?

Korea
Vietnam
Grenada
Iraq
So many lost lives
We can never take back;
So many ******* wars
We all have lost track.
Panama
Serbia
Syria
Iraq

Invade them all, degrade them all
Because it doesn’t really matter to us.
Steal their lands, pound them into the sand
When done, throw them all under the bus.
Look what we have done to our natives.
You see how experienced we are at this.
We spare no expenses when it is war.
Oh, and what a lucrative thing it is.

Korea
Vietnam
Grenada
Iraq
So many lost lives
We can never take back;
So many ******* wars
We all have lost track.
Panama
Serbia
Syria
Iraq

I try so hard to be loving
But there are a folks
That I just don’t like.
I mean it, no jokes.
They’re mean and nasty
And loudly unkind.
To like such people means
I would need to be blind
And deaf and mute and
Completely out of my head.
So, I think I’ll just go on
Disliking them instead.

I mean, what the heck?
I’m not all that spiritual.
It’s not like I am a very
Overtly saintly individual.
On a scale of one to ten
I’m probably an eight
And most of my neighbors
Aren’t even that great.
And it’s not really a contest
From the very beginning
So what sense is there
In working hard at winning?

Some believe in heaven
And others believe in hell.
Well, I know both of those
Two places very well.
I used to live in the Midwest;
‘******’ was a polite word.
Just about the nicest version
Ot that epithet I ever heard.
Where gays and Jews
Might just as well go die
Because all good Midwesterners
Would sneer as they went by.

Oh, and if you were a Christian
You had better be the right sect.
Don’t try to pass as godly
If you religion ever genuflects.
And don’t be a Democrat there
Because that is plainly wrong.
And marrying between races
Bubba beats your head like a gong.
I think it might be better
For me to just be who I am.
Trying to act like a Republican
Just gets me into a big jam.

I don’t want to go to heaven
If hypocrites get to go there.
I’d get thrown right out
I’d knock them off the stair.
Of course, if they get in
That means something is awry.
So, maybe Saint Peter
Had better just pass me by.
Anyway, I sort of found heaven
In a chocolate cheesecake.
Just leave me alone with one.
That’s about all it takes.

Lift up your voice and shout.
Even if it feels a bit strange.
We know what we’re about.
Praying and singing for change.

Work and sing for change
Just as hard as politicians lie.
Call them out for their untruths.
Ask them when, how and why.
Don’t accept weak excuses.
They have far too many of those.
Make their equivocation useless.
Make them keep their lying lips closed.

Sing if you’re tired of defeat.
Sing if you are willing to try.
Sing to everybody you meet.
It may take some power on high.

Don’t forget what is needed.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
It’s hard to cheat the wary
By trickery  played on your eyes.
Keep on insisting on honesty.
Make them all stick to the subject.
If they don’t answer the questions.
You know just who not to elect.

Lift up your voice and shout.
Even if it feels a bit strange.
We know what we’re about.
Praying and singing for change.

A little boy sitting
On the side of the road crying.
His heart is carrying
An extremely heavy load, dying.
He thinks nobody cares.
He once had family somewhere
Now nobody knows where he is.
They’re off drinking a sloe-gin fizz.
After years of having to raise him
Their parental drive is growing dim.

Selfish cruel parents,
They have more children
Than they ever had any morals;
Feel they can rest on their laurels
And let the boy grow.
They don’t know why they had him.
Their decision was probably random
And now they regret it.
Easy to forget it and move on.
It’s like the boy is gone.
And so he is moving on. Gone.

Little boy crying
On the side of the road, weeping.
He should be at home sleeping
Taking a protected nap
Maybe in his parent’s lap, but no.
He felt it was time to go.
Go looking for somebody to love hm.
To put nobody else above him.
Not even the parents themselves.
He wants somebody else.
I would too.
Wouldn’t  you?

I heard the wind speak your name
I enjoyed the aroma of your scent
Though you had gone for hours.
And I knew what these things meant.
I heard your voice in the breeze
And saw your face in the clouds.
I wanted so much to see you again
That I needed to shout out loud.

I am that slap-happy person
I made fun of only yesterday.
I would look at me and laugh.
But not anymore. Not today.
If you haven’t had it happen
Someone changes everything,
Then you won’t understand
Any lyric I am choosing to sing.

Days were once just long hours,
Time endured begrudgingly by me.
Then you changed them to music;
Measures of beats and melody.
It was so easy to sing from then on
And to dance instead of walking.
I found myself making poetry
Rhyming instead of just talking.

So many of the things in life
Chores I once found tedious,
Like going outside in the rain
Or waiting for the next bus
No longer even bother me
Now that symphonies play
Like a movie theme song
To accompany me on my way.

I am that slap-happy person
I made fun of only yesterday.
I would look at me and laugh.
But not anymore. Not today.
If you haven’t had it happen
Someone changes everything
Then you won’t understand
Any lyric I am choosing to sing.

His mother was suicidal
His father was patricidal
His siblings all fratricidal
They fractured his parietal.
His acumen was impractical
While his mien was didactical
His morals were retractible
And his religion was heretical.

He longed to be a celebrity
And wished for its celerity
To skip the serendipity
And fork over his luminosity.
But it seems that synchronicity
Paired up with idiosyncrasy
In a natural form of complicity
And waylaid him with complicity.

He moaned that he was qualified
And not the least bit mollified
To be so soundly criticized
That they could not recognize
By those who were so glassy eyed
A plenipotentiary, very wise
Who appears before their very eyes
Who they would gladly plagiarize
Even while they ostracize.

He can’t achieve equanimity
When so many hold their enmity
And treat him so outrageously
In ignoring his magnanimity.
After all, is there anyone living
Who is so astoundingly forgiving
Than he by the simple act of giving
And letting them go on living?