What have you sold?
Was it worth its weight in gold?
A votive lit for fifty cents,
A flame announcing you repent;
To beg your saint to intercede
To provide your worldly needs.
Was that your body up for sale;
What would you trade for the Holy Grail?
Sell a kidney or a lung,
Sell your lap top and your phone.
Sell the home, enslave the kids,
Offer all to the highest bid.
Simonize your sale tonight,
In the sun it shines bright;
Let the buyer drive the fraud,
After all, you're a demigod.
Have you sold your secret soul,
Your joie de vivre,
The living truth
For make-believe?
Sell it all in a sidewalk sale,
Sell your house, sell every nail;
Every brick and piece of wood,
The price you get is understood,
To get as much as one could.
We make the deal for personal gain,
Trangress against the light;
Stand in the shadow of the shadow
Of the master of the mill.
Add to coffers, sell off principles,
Buy a judge, sell a nation,
It's a photo-op donation.
Betray an ally, sell a friend,
Exploit the lonely til their end.
Abuse your office, hire a niece,
Family fortunes will increase.
Pander to hypocrisy - here it's called democracy.
These are not our personal sins,
But crimes against society,
Crimes against life.
Look upon our deadly works,
Ozymandias warned we should.
Jun 20, 2017
Jun 20, 2017 at 9:08 AM UTC
What have you sold?
Was it worth its weight in gold?
A votive lit for fifty cents,
A flame announcing you repent;
To beg your saint to intercede
To provide your worldly needs.
Was that your body up for sale;
What would you trade for the Holy Grail?
Sell a kidney or a lung,
Sell your lap top and your phone.
Sell the home, enslave the kids,
Offer all to the highest bid.
Simonize your sale tonight,
In the sun it shines bright;
Let the buyer drive the fraud,
After all, you're a demigod.
Have you sold your secret soul,
Your joie de vivre,
The living truth
For make-believe?
Sell it all in a sidewalk sale,
Sell your house, sell every nail;
Every brick and piece of wood,
The price you get is understood,
To get as much as one could.
We make the deal for personal gain,
Trangress against the light;
Stand in the shadow of the shadow
Of the master of the mill.
Add to coffers, sell off principles,
Buy a judge, sell a nation,
It's a photo-op donation.
Betray an ally, sell a friend,
Exploit the lonely til their end.
Abuse your office, hire a niece,
Family fortunes will increase.
Pander to hypocrisy - here it's called democracy.
These are not our personal sins,
But crimes against society,
Crimes against life.
Look upon our deadly works,
Ozymandias warned we should.
Ozymandias: Poem by Shelley (1818).
