Poetry
from City Dwellers/After Brecht
The Cities are Made for You
Since the cities are very large
And complicated to navigate
Plans and directions are there for you
Who haven’t learned the game
Joyfully we await your arrival
Door unlocked table set
Be open to suggestion
We are too
You needn’t be sure of your intentions
We consider suggestions
And will answer questions as they arise
Everything was planned before you arrived
You who haven’t learned the grift
The Street
You’ve tasted the gas looked down the barrel
You’ve had due process we’ll have the report
You have been shot don’t get up too quickly
You have been shot don’t turn around
Things got jumbled wait until
The smoke gives way
Stay down
Here it Comes
Reality will come to you in dry and general terms
Undeniable and beyond communication it
Won’t recognize you or your weary complications
Chronos
The cities may change but you may not
The rubble’s kept low to prop up the stones
We may kill you when we don’t need you
Might be best to stay inside
You may change but the cities may not
The stones don’t flatten to rubble at least
Not that you’ll notice we didn’t care to kill you
The times just moved things along
Fifth Wheel
Towers of tires by the side of the highway
Sometimes inexplicably one will catch fire
Igniting the others it’s another toxic day
We are with you at the moment your head
Starts to ache you rub your temples
And realize you’re a fifth wheel
We’re in your brain and on your shoulders
From here to the horizon as you search
For a word that will allow you an exit
Without making too much of a scene
Finally you say it please I need to leave
We say you will stay until we say so
We say this openly but don’t think
We’re villains for keeping you informed
Transparency is our stock in trade
Don’t say it loudly that the world’s gone toxic
Don’t go for your gun have a glass of water
The world isn’t bad but we have no space
For you
How it Flies and How it Rolls
When years ago I attempted a very minor insurrection
And tried to study labor’s relation to profit I suddenly
Understood how everything is managed and manipulated
And at the same time I did not understand so turned
Away semi-ignorant but somehow knowing
That I could get myself into some deeper shit
When it occurred that achievement invention discovery
could be used for greater misery rage
And lamentation followed but I turned away
The thought that what they did and how
Was intolerable and shocked me but mostly
Frightened me
That those that live by doing damage to others
A situation upheld only by crimes committed
So effortlessly would just as easily damage me