Rude Awakening

Once upon a time
A noble pursuit was etched in founding papers
A lighthouse to all lost in a sea of despair
We judged ourselves by the measure of Martin’s dream
Maya’s poetry that Amanda later recalled
Gettysburg ensured such a nation would endure

Oh how the mighty has fallen

A score…since an improbable dream made possible
A blessing on a New York convention floor
The rain is gone, the harvest ain’t been a feast
Since the red hats showed up
The swamp has metastasized
All the alligators turned to crocs
Mastodon and all the monsters Hollywood conjures

Message from the burning bush
Tell the boss he can’t be the boss no more
Friendly fire in the camp
Look who is holding the gun
The Commanda and the chief
Look at the soldiers dying
On the streets of Orlando, El Paso
Another 1 another 10 another 100 dead
On the streets of Gaza
Look at the mess you’ve made
Alliances unmade
Silly boys proud of what the Klan used to hide
Look at the mess you’ve made
Confederate flag raised in the Capital building
150 years after the Union won the Civil War

One day you gonna tell Jefferson
What happened to the hurdled masses
When you herded them like cattle to Salvadorian prisons

Look at the mess you’ve made
On a false crusade
To make an America that never was America
No checks, no balance
Congress at your beck and call
This is how democracy is unmade
Defund education and make stupidity public
Call protesters rioters, and pardon rioters as patriots
Keep your fingers on the economic scale
Billions to your family and billionaire friends
Who cares about a laptop when you use the military to extort mining deals

Oh lord who knew
The Promised Land was a hoax, an emerald city in the Nevada desert

Mr Wannabe Emperor, your clothes is as plain as the lack of diversity at your rallies
If that is the great you seek how small is your imagination
A dinosaur thinking he can outrun the asteroid
How futile is the future you seek

Your lies cannot be true
No matter how loudly you say it
Crase cannot be cool
No matter how plainly you dress it
Your lyrics ain’t singing
The game is boring even if it’s deadly
We ain’t minions and you are despicable

Of this you can be sure
We are not going to sit still
Not going back
Not going to bend the knee
Not going to worship at the altar of your ego
The tea is spilled at a Boston harbor
Washingtons men with Molotov cocktail in one hand
In the other a Star-Spangled Banner
We be Sojourner
Children of John Brown
Raised on Stonewall
All our last names be X
If you think we are going to stay silent
Or play like scared children in some dystopia nightmare
This is a rude awakening