The dreaded holidays recede.
Greed and gluttony,
bogus religiosity,
mandatory jollity,
painful remembrance,
all depart for another year.
The merchandising serpents,
having sold their apples,
slither back to their offices
to count the take.
The usurers smile
and unbutton their vests.
The God of Mammon
is sated for a while.
The possibilities
of real life return
and that is truly
something to celebrate.
  - mce

It is ever more difficult
to sing of One's-Self.
The En-Masse
has swallowed up
the simple separate person;
the Democratic
is dying, if not dead.
The Leaves of Grass
now all look the same,
chant the same slogans,
believe and buy
what they are told
to believe and buy.
The power, pulse
and passion of Life
are subsumed
in blind conformity.
You said a man should,
"Resist much; obey little."
How many, in all this land,
now have the courage
to live those words?
That vast American energy
you rightly celebrated
is channeled now
to serve war and greed
and evil usury.
You would find little
in the current version
of The Modern Man
worth singing about;
little worth the immensity
of your vision and voice.
If you could return now
and chance to see
the empty, constricted husk
your country has become,
I wonder how Cheerful
your song would be.
  - mce

Where may guile walk
But within the hour of deception?

Where may cunning awaken
But at the dawn of deceit?

The insincere accumulation
Wealth gained without merit
Avarice for advancement
Family name for hubris
Honor for shame
Tradition for currency
Legacy for advantage
Word for reputation

Not born of shrewd duplicity
But fired by the weakness
Of man
In desperation
To elevate his own life
Above that of his mortality
And his fear
Of dying alone
With no mark
Or memory preserved

She was made to satisfy the greed of everyone else.

The woes of life
we pass them on,
'cause if we can't see them
then the problem is gone.

We shudder when
we hear transgression
but we all watch on
and then take our confession.

Now that we're forgiven
we can carry on
cause if we can't see it
then the problem is gone.

The world we know
could be much better run,
removing the barrier,
deserting the gun.

Renounce all the greed
and announce it out loud.
That up until now
we cannot be proud.

Or we can stand still,
and not move on.
Cause if we pretend
then the problem is gone.

Could we stand together
and perhaps all refuse
to join in with hate
and reject racist views.

This is maybe the only
way that we can move on.
Cause if we all join together
then the problem is gone.

Without asking for more than the simple sweet simplicitys,
I am bounded by the same laws and rules for life.
No use in explaining the values of eccentricities,
We are all tools for the media, for what they strive.
A product of the temptation for power over others, we will stay
The same forever, entrapped in ice with our sisters and brothers,
The silly dreams we have, our pursuits. A tiny bit of concern to the
Rich-who live to find the right eyeliner, lip gloss-or the best set of
Nine Irons for golfing or business suits. Some day they will
Get what they deserve, some day...some day.
But too bad for me, some day came a little too late...

Alice in her wonderland could never have imagined
that the bounty of the promise land was not found in her companion.
She would have sought to  make him king
she would have bought him everything.
But falling short of all her providence,
he would need some sort of evidence;
to show that indeed twas he
who from greed was very free,
and could love her in her poverty
if say, from above she'd loose propriety.