Bread and circuses
Live off unemployment just enough
to eat cheap
get distracted by
the politics
They're so evil
or they're so evil
while your dreams come true

Unlimited access to your favorite shows
without commercials
so long as you got the cash to subscribe
They say generations are the same
you look down on the kids on the grass
They just don't understand
I used to wait in lines at the video store
It was expensive and limiting
but maybe those limitations help us be more human
It was there son
that I first bumped into your mother
We both reached for the same copy of The Matrix III
and we talked about the machines
for a full half an hour
It's then I asked her for her number
I called her home and
had to introduce myself to her mother
Yes, your grandmother

They all feel the same as I
and you will too
Cause our tech is moving so fast that
we got to catch up to the racetrack you were born in
People used to be farmers and
walk the tarmac track  
and slowly pass it on to their kids
that walk just as slow
Then people start inventing
pretentious things other animals don't
and the baton gets tossed to the next walker
who start walking really fast
and now we're at a lightning bolt sprint
A baby's born
and they jump ahead
with the baton in their hand
while we collectively lose our soles
to efficiency

These cheap new shoes
don't last like my old ones

The thoughts sound too forced
too scattered in blasé
Can you blame them?
All I see in one day
all my questions
ready to be answered
the lack of closure leaves me
staring at a screen
hood on
in the snow on my front porch
waiting for the dog to ****
but can't sit in the silence
I check the news
check my stocks
no attention paid
cause the tension's raised
What should I do with my life when I go back inside?

Too many options
Antenna TV
Star Trek all night or stream the same
But which ones to pick?
Maybe I'll check the net to see what's best
cause I already watched them all
still would really like some comfort
from good stories with morals
And while it's on commercials I'll
find something else to do on my phone
I keep doing it
and all the time I'm thinking about work
or trying to move to a better place
or pondering the doom of the human race

What do you keep on your shelf?
The kind you can lock up and hide things
where once we held poor rabbits
pets when we're kids
but mistreated because
in most places and times  
they eat them

not just the kind that's hunted
The illogical culture of America
and all places
Here, it's more humane to herd cows in sheds
than it is to keep small rodents in cabinets
our indigenous and precious pets
deserve crates and cages
Time in the yard when it's sunny
and we can watch them

Burning nostalgic memories
letting the smoke flow out my nose
Cause I resigned myself to just sit and pine
and dream about times where I paid no mind
to past lives

The past five years
I though the world would end
I shacked up with one that decried
my wasted potential in normal jobs
Like where do you get off
if I'm making halfway decent bucks?

The irony of our artsy resurgent humanity degrees
Just go and sell life insurance
Them boomers turned us into gloomers
Generation X, my young parents
the first victims,
at least they had half a fair shake in life
I think the 90s had it right
dripping in yin yang rings and necklaces
so we wouldn't lose our way

Woo wee, where were we?
Hiding from my brother in a clothes rack
with my parents at the mall every weekend
So much confidence in where we were going
The end of history itself
in our careful chaos regulation

Trying to make sense
and maintain confidence in a superfluous world
where you simultaneously have too much choice
but feel like you lack control under indecision.

The derision
looked down upon from those that
were able to mete out a comfortable existence
where they went off toward goals with focus

Now they're maxing
New goals include weekend boat trips, weekday dinner dates, and vacation travel plan always ever posted on the kitchen fridge
Another in the garage just for beer and pop

Can they understand folks that have it rough?
A rockier road to get to the top if there is one at all
Fear to bring children into this world?

Let's pretend we can enjoy the world's decadence
like the oblivious do
Let's do chaos magick
to make our dreams come true
and grow closer together as
the monkey claw closes too soon
and we sit on a pile of
decade old what-if situations
stamped down by unintended consequences
Let's cash in our paltry spoils
and toast to loving fate
Here's to staying together
just for the story
We used to say: predictable, finally
Now we're thinking: routine, help me
The wheel's spinning so fast
it's a blur
Sameness
We're shamans of samsara
cautioning against becoming gods
Fear change
but can you please spare some?
I forestalled enlightenment
just to help you all become
one mushy blob
and now I'm bored

I'm not uptight  
I'm just a bodhisattva
waiting to die so I can leave this world
Wish someone would just give me some spoiled food
so I'll be done for good

When life gives you rotten produce
make banana ***
'Cause it's no use sitting
and ******* about
how our world isn't another one
Drink up
store extra slurp in your tum
Make society so no one's starving
and the kids can have some fun
___________________

­**** your pie factories in the clouds
Bulldoze churches to build parks and playgrounds
Make it illegal for stores to throw food in dumpsters
just so some homeless guy will learn
how to fish in a desert sandstorm
caused by industrial emissions
that our overlords refuse to pick up
themselves or even pay the bill for

You bamboozled fools
just want to watch subliminal *****
on your shiny screens
all to trick you into drinking the
venomous ***** milk from plastic straws
It's all the slaw that the marketers peddle
Indecipherable hacked bits
your mind fractionalized
and trained to keep coming back to bliss
The endorphin kick of these brainwashing clips
Can't read anymore cause I got
a worse attention span than a goldfish
Me and Skipper tried to save the Minnow
but she was no match
for the ocean
Now we're stuck on an island
where we don't even consider
the headhunters human

I forgot what we ought to do
I keep ******* up the signal fires
and coconut powered sonar systems
'Cause I look all around
and all I wanna do is clock the Professor
cause we're fighting over Ginger
It doesn't take a brain surgeon
to season your oil
and if you forget
the vegetarian oyster sauce
can it even still be considered a stir fry, smart guy?

**** it
let's just eat the octogenarian and his wife
'cause I read a study that said
the rich would willingly give up their life
for the economy
Last I checked, sand dollars aren't tasty
so your bone marrow's much more valuable
than your bullion and Nasdaq arrows

Once I feel a little comfort
I'll start blabbering about my dreams in progress
She's so supportive
thinks I'm a renaissance man
for all I find important
all the albums and paintings I've planned
Young da Vinci to a T
Little she know I don't dot my eyes
So I'm just sitting there
looking at a bland pole
with blurry vision
She's too great
so my childish totem's fade
cause all I want is you babe
Streaming binges on the couch
I sense the boredom bubbling up
So I start sifting through that rolodex
of perfect dates in my head
Walking through the naval museum
I still sense things are out of step
'cause a flawless Connery impression
just fell flat
I double down
beat the dead horse
of course, of course
So we sat down on the bench
across from the U.S.S. She don't give a ****
We talk about us
and I'm hit with a brick
"You used to wanna be a rock star
write books, teach college
and travel far
What ever happened to the "Will to Power"
you never used to shut up about
You're just content to be a hobbyist simp
that talks big and likes to hold my hand
I fear I'm holding you back
You've gotten so lazy since we met"
I wipe the brick from my face
and explain that my mind
is the only chains
that stopped me from doing those things
I was never even happy with those lofty dreams
She got me outta a dark place
and I'm content with just
strumming chords on my front porch
and exploring Western New York
So long as it's with someone more gorges than Ithaca
And you'll be my Penelope
She says she doesn't deserve me
but as she stares at Lake Erie
I know she means that I'm not the man she hoped I was
I used to rap about snatching power and holding gold
while beating myself like an opus dei catholic
just for being too lazy and not doing enough
I'm sorry you made me comfortable and happy enough
to live a modest life
(Oh good tidings of comfort and joy
comfort and joy)
Now I'm alone again
and it's opening day
Wreck myself with unachievable goals
just to reel them in
Get secure and balanced 'till
they'll throw me back into the mercury waves
I'm an ancient treasure in the making
don't excavate me.