Do we ever grow out of being schoolchildren crushing
Is it just my Peter Pan showing cuz I never turned into nothing
They ask you if you have things they don’t ask if you’re happy
Uncle Sam needs you to keep those paychecks cashing
To fear every twist they’re telling
And buy everything they’re selling
Cuz what would we do
What would happen
So scary
Lead us please
Your flock of sheep
Every generation that rises up
Is turned to profit and blood
Dressed up as the little wins
Cuz that’s all we could ever get
Right
Cuz if it all changed what would we do
What would happen
So scary
Please lead us
And keep feeding us media
Owned all by the same if you follow it high enough
Pit us against them
Themselves
All the same
Any crack used to divide us
Like they used crack to divide us
And wars and violence
Prisons, laws, culture, flaws
What would the world look like if women had been in charge
If money hadn’t been the boss
If it wasn’t too late to be able to see what little boys could grow up to be if our society left them unstained, if there was such a thing as real equality
And we break it down into pieces like how much we get paid and who gets to have a say and the wounds left unseen spiderweb left for each new crop of kids to try to get a grip and wonder if it’s better in other places but everywhere we’re killing eachother everywhere we’re chasing power even just the power to be able to eat, that currency under different names hits the same and we’re capable of communication beyond our ancestors wildest dreams but it still comes down to arbitrary lines comes down to a physical fight about who you can be and what you can believe in a different sectioned off area on the same damn rotating planet while we poison the air we breathe and water we drink and go off on missions to help those with less fortunes or scream in futility, punch out through grief across our phone keys and get told you have to try, to vote, to work, to pick between the only paths they give us and making a difference is important but we’re still just small fish and we can’t vote on capitalism or to restart society, just get distracted by one tragedy after another from ‘fellow men’ to the weather and they say that clock is ticking down getting close in its count and there’s another show out about what happens after our inevitable end from a virus or a bomb or starvation and the kids these days know it’s too late but you still expect them to fall in line, follow the sins of the fathers and promise them a better life after they die and at some point probably after my life its all going to come to a head so what do you expect of us who see it all for what it is and don’t want to simply fit in and waste our breath working for someone else to get rich, or building our own only to enjoy life once we’re already old when we watched our family break their backs and see everyone on the same race track, it’s a hamster wheel and we can’t step back cuz then you get run over while so many lives just get glossed over so we find beauty anywhere we can and on we latch and can you tell us what means more than that when we carry this guilt and weight of expectations of generations on our backs and swallow lies and compromise knowing in some way it’s always been like that, but they always worked for a better day for a chance for change but with every age that hope is getting slimmer when we don’t even wanna have kids cuz not only is it more expensive and dangerous but what kind of world would they inherit? When we can’t fix it, who would wish it? Silenced by everyone who either thinks we’re lucky for the progress or that they still have it worse than the next so they set us up against each other which we do just fine enough ourselves, squabbling while they change history books and hold up the latest liberal win as proof of something and all of it matters but none of it is enough, all of it is too much, power in unity is a fleeting concept, can’t defund the police much less the politicians, giving autonomy to corporations, to build anything better when the only tainted options they give you have us all fighting over fear and whether your uncle or brother is actually a ‘good man’ like the problem isn’t in every system, we can only take those baby steps right cuz if we changed anything major what would that look like? What would we do, what would happen? So scary, please lead us. Lambs to the slaughter in the name of the dollar given to us by the holy father, surrounded by empty promises and scraps of happiness built on broken backs and bullets, and we all need something to believe in right, ourselves, each other, a higher power, a better place, pull the facade away and what would happen what would we do? So scary, better hold onto every cherished bit of opportunity, privilege.. Humility, of love, of compassion, of humanity.. what else can we do..