23.11.05
CAPITOL AIRS
for Allen
We love the government where we live
We like to be ruled by the wealthy
We need to be reminded what to eat
We feel safe with the cops in the street
We want our manifestos regulated
Our dress codes keep us elated
They say discipline builds character
Besides you can take it home with you afterward
We enjoy being vested in a twelve ounce escape
So long as the leash is attached at the nape
So that multicorporate meltdown
Doesn't feel like such a letdown
We secretly think military prisons are keen
Wouldn't want those inmates dancing out in the street
If millions are killed by a secretary's error
Who needs revolution when the world's in a fever
We adore anarchists screaming hate sells
We're grateful a secret intelligence slit idealism's throat
Sensible tanks squat in Baghdad Square
Thank God someone paid that bill with blood spilled fair
Terror in Pennsylvania or DC Two Thousand One
We now depend upon a Right Wing Death Squad Democracy, Son
Police state Iraq North Korea Tomorrow
Please don't throw us in that briar patch, comrade;
We are Nationalist Supremacy, White and Black-
We know informants & mobsters scratch each other's back
The gameplayers dress snappy for their citizen's arrest
And the most fortunate son stacks his chips on the fields of unrest
We may not approve of 3rd World cops killing Jews
So we'll just turn our eyes from the central american news
As for Zionist troops in the unfolding storm
We resent the Nazi label, shoot first is the norm
God bless Homeland Security
We can smoke out the rats under Fealty
And teargas the radical dissenters
In San Francisco or Salt Lake City Heaven forbid
In the States its an X-box in the Mideast just a book
In some countries to find yourself you wouldn't know where to look
Sit back down and keep away from the window --
You dare talk back, wanna get slapped so everyone'll know?
Our economy is invested so get back to work
You think War grows on trees?
The Enemy's got just as much in tanks and planes
Another Fifty Billion & we can bring em to their knees
The Halls of Education stand proud as History has overseen
One by one we replace dictatorships with democracy
Sure its been proven communism works only on papers
Stuck together with the blood of war prisoners
Our President knows there is something worth fighting for
He didn't need to say it, he just started up a war
Desert Storm II, a box office success for sure
Not to mention a shoe-in at the Oscars allure
Herbert Walker and his clout bought some Saudi oil out
Then a tyrant threw a fit and burnt up a lot of it
Ten years later they were ready to invade her
Sure they took office by force someone had to, Damn Straight
George A. Romero directed Land Of The Dead
And our attentions away from the dying instead
Making our sons' and daughters' sacrifice in vain
Fuck a busload of dyke nuns we're talking here about our sons
Half the voting contingency may as well be on crack
They can't even make it to the polls and back
And if the trend continues in this fashion
We may need an Iron Fist, don't call it fascist
The road to truth is a hard thin line to walk
The pathway to rebellion is wide and easy
If you think this State is not by and for the People
Then you need to jump right back & get conditioned in the Steeple
If the systems of the world all end up being the same
Then if we regulate them who's to blame?
Besides, do you have any idea what they eat down there?
They could use a Subway and Atkins diet in Tiananmen Square
This is a holy war and God's on our side
And when everybody's dead we'll be Chosen for Heaven's ride
All except the terrorists & liberals raving in the street
Exchanging hugs & bullets everywhere they meet
No hope for the Infidels No hope for the Left
The godless are amongst us can I get an Amen
Because we are right our American Might
Will draw shut that bloody Iron Curtain again
Jesus Christ died for your sins
So that Law and Order could be maintained
Do you think for a heartbeat the same could be said
Of that son-of-a-bitch Sadam Hussein?
The moral of this story is that we stole all your glory
And we did it right in front of your face
Sure we patrol the streets internationally
It's no longer a secret, you're a slave, a disgrace
Terrorists just bought into our upperclass plan
Now they work for us, under our Reprimand
And if we confuse a longhair or tourist for one
Why that ain't no skin lost so long as business gets done
Calm down Calm down wherever you are No Cure
Trust in God and antidepressants for sure
Take a deep breath and a sedative you'll find
Will prepare you for the workforce tomorrow, Mankind
Salt Lake City
November 21, 2005
© by Shaun A. Lawton
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5 comments:
Sounds like you're ready to go to Canada. or the moon. me too.
AMEN!!! YesSir!! Thank you for that. Rich words, from a rich soul. never loose that hunger.
although it would no longer mirror ginsy's poem, another stanza about the cure for aids hidden in the business column would not be out of order. we don't want africa to recover...we like to keep them weak and subordinated...
ask me about another byu professor's discovery regarding the twin towers....
A couple nights ago I stayed up past midnight scribing this answer
to Allen Ginsberg's 1980 punk poem protest song Capitol Air. I tried
finding the text online, but couldn't. It is 24 four-line stanzas
long. My poem mirrors his stanza for stanza, and represents the
standpoint of the current mob mentality I see prevalent in this
country. (Allen's was written from his individual's perspective,
railing against tyranny.) I've dedicated my companion piece to Allen
naturally, who's one small mercy is that he is no longer around to
be mortified by what we have became, a quarter-of-a-century after
the initial appearance of his protest song.
i speak in this fashion by
leaving double lines of odd syncopation
throughout the medium of my message
so the discourse of poetry can
best achieve its job of derailing
the need-be from the who-then
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