Born On The Fourth Of July

 

There is abroad amongst us now

a new obscenity spawned

in empty moral passivity.

Sun sets on days of plenty

hastening dark fears of scarcity

 

Where is our shame with,

kings and presidents irrelevant or less?

Hospitals fall from pinnacles of healing,

erstwhile healers watch as, uninsured,

the patient writhes and dies

 

Where does moral outrage live

when it’s all made somewhere else?

Is there no responsibility but mine

when baby dies from poisoned milk?

What profiteth a man to gain the whole world, if......

 

Populate a world with countless

pickups, suv’s and sleek sedans

then drive them like there’s no tomorrow

where milk costs more than gasoline

and food is spent to fuel this lust

 

Export our way of life, democracy

what matter if we kill, Mahmood died free

rescued, safe from murdering tyrants

but dead is dead...and how did we ask those questions?

 

Make the homeland safe at any cost

no record kept of dark deeds done in secret

no honour left, mere squalid gain corrupted

constitution pushed aside by lawyer-wrangling

 

Stare financial ruin in the face --

A nation’s wealth stripped bare

to feed those corporate coffers

while ten million more go hungry

 

Watch the sun rise warmer in the sky

here a drough or there a flood

but still doubt lingers on

we can spend the forest fires out

but can we wait until the water wars?