I've Always Been a Poet, 'Though I Didn't Always Know It

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I've Always Been a Poet, 'Though I Didn't Always Know It Page 3

by Joshua S. Friedman


  Don’t you want this placebo?

  Don’t you want it ripping through you head?

  Locked up, tied up in a padded cell

  Drooling, grinning within a padded room

  Living free within my head

  Still within this padded room

  So good to see you my friend

  I hope you feel better

  So many pills at hand

  Electrode thoughts are better

  I hope you feel better

  Tell me now isn’t that better

  Why don’t we crank up the voltage?

  How is that my friend?

  Blind, dumb, and deaf is better

  This will make you well

  This will make you feel better

  This will help you fit in

  This will make you much better

  This will make you well

  This will make you better

  This will make you well

  This will make you much better

  This will make you well

  This will make you much better

  This will help you fit in

  Locked up, tied up in a padded cell

  Drooling, grinning within a padded room

  Living free within my head

  Still within this padded room

  RHYME TIME (Pt. 2)

  We three kings bear gifts from our souls

  Traveled so far, we’ve gathered no mold

  Still repeating, slow receding

  Follow the starlight home

  Oh, star of virtue, star so bright

  Guide us through this dismal night

  We three hail from Israel

  The child of God is born tonight

  DEPRESSION IN D MAJOR

  I scream, “Suffering!”

  Isolated hate, and misery

  You drag me down

  I wade in waste

  I laugh, I grin

  I bear it

  I see adultery

  Machinators plot conspiracy

  I recall how once

  You’d bent over backward for me

  Why no more?

  A black cloud looms over me

  Like the ailments of old

  I comply, I contort

  To raging madness

  Mountain-sized

  Infinitesimal

  My anger rings your door-bell

  And throttles you

  Black cats claw my innards

  I contort, I comply

  To dark desires

  Conflagrate

  Ensconced in cinder

  Mortal effigy

  Depressed

  Brooding

  Hermit of the decade

  Brooding

  Depressed

  I stroke my veins and ponder

  Humbled, skulking

  My dove cares not about me

  If only I the strength

  If only I the will

  If only I not a coward

  III

  POETIC JUSTICE

  INTRO

  This is Johnny and Suzie

  Johnny and Suzie are two good little Americans

  They brush their teeth

  Comb their hair

  Do all their chores

  And say their prayers

  (Rumble-rumble)

  What’s that?

  Oh, no!

  The sky is falling

  What to do?

  Luckily, little Johnny and Suzie learned what to do in school

  Just bend over, stick your head between your legs, and kiss your ass good-bye

  That’s right, bend over, stick your head between your legs, and kiss your ass good-bye

  This has been a public service announcement brought to you by the Great Satan

  UNE FORCE D’JOUR

  I need me some triple-A batteries

  45’s, a sixteen inch magazine

  Pride of the brave new world and I got a gun

  No, not my rifle, the other one

  I’ve blacked out seas for industries diseased kings

  And plowed through fields of slaves with this crooked halo on my head

  And still I feel the need to just keep wreaking havoc on this earth

  Oh, it’s just too much fun

  These times can break you down

  Oh, so insipid

  Cattle thrive on flesh of young and still want more

  No chance in Hell for hope or final deliverance

  So, take a post and guard with every last breath

  This hydra’s coiled around our heats resistance

  These stone-faced sentinels will bring the hammer of justice down on our heads

  Amen!

  Come ‘round the corner, there you are

  It’s not like on TV

  It’s not our fault

  You’re to blame

  And that’s just how we see

  Got my stars n’ stripes, I hoist the colors proud and tall

  Born free pirates of the world

  We’ve come to tame you all

  Silence is implied acceptance, no one has to talk

  About the state of things, and how we’ve all been just so wrong

  So grab an axe and stake the streets, this time we’ve gone too far

  To go back again, remove the sin that’s plagued us from the dawn

  Disembowel with pointy words, our pundits crucified

  With no distaste, we breed our wastes

  And that’s just how we’ll die

  Yeah, that’s how we’ll die!

  I need me some Vicodin and Thorazine

  To forget the past and jade all these things I have done

  ‘Cause I don’t believe in anyone or anything

  Except this code of honor to which I am sworn

  So bring to me your tired, your weak, your sick, and your dead

  And I shall bury their memories as we break this moldy bread

  Our heats are fragile, wounded, mortality’s end

  How can we bathe in the same blood and still not be friends?

  I store Long-Johns to prepare for atomic winter

  I keep an abacus of souls but scratch marks are simpler

  To keep score of the hordes that have lived and died by the edge of the sword

  I store fruit but no matter it always grows bitter

  Black rust on our hearts as we toil and fritter

  Killing time, festering minds

  We’ve wasted lives now we can’t rewind

  Hot damn!

  Come ‘round the corner, here we are

  Just like on your TV

  Your coat d’arms you must disarm if you wish to be

  Got your pins and crowns and shiny trinkets made of gold

  Your credit cards are money pits, what we crave now is your oil

  So take a bow and don’t be shy, we’ll walk you down the aisle

  To your mistress of distress, egregiously we smile

  Come ‘round the corner, there you are

  It’s not like on TV

  It’s not our fault

  You’re to blame

  And that’s just how we see

  Got my stars n’ stripes I hoist the colors proud and tall

  Born free pirates of the world

  We’ve come to tame you all

  Silence is implied acceptance, no one has to talk

  About the state of things, and how we’ve all been just so wrong

  So grab an axe and stake the streets, this time we’ve gone too far

  To go back again, remove the sin that’s plagued us from the dawn

  Disembowel with pointy words, our pundits crucified

  With no distaste, we breed our wastes

  And that’s just how we’ll die

  Yeah, that’s how we’ll die!

  Freedom isn’t free, in fact it, costs a dollar-six (after taxes)

  Devils dancing in delight

  To our never ending plight

  And that’s how we’ll die!


  MAN EAT MAN

  Cut-throat economics

  Ladder-climbing

  Hooked on phonics

  Centrifuging

  Soul polluting

  Foot in door

  Mass producing

  Hallucinogenics

  And white-noise

  Corporate fronts

  And bail-out loans

  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

  Endangered species

  Socialists

  Billy Joel brought the fire

  But Prometheus stole the pyre

  But, if God ate God

  He still wouldn’t give a damn

  ‘Cause it’s dog eat dog

  Man eat man

  Out-sourced

  Downsizing

  Backstabbing

  Debt rising

  Verdict’s in

  De-appreciating

  Antiquated

  Third-world nations

  Rubbish heaps

  So-called recycling

  Pseudo self-help reliance

  Institutionalized

  Crazy-ass

  Eminent domain

  Third strike on

  Office of code compliance

  Elton John’s the rocket man

  But, Friedrich Nietzsche had a plan

  ‘Cause it’s truth for truth

  And, damned be damned

  Dog eat dog

  Man eat man

  Auto-erotic

  Asphyxiation

  Miasmic

  Declarations

  I said it once

  We breed our wastes

  Mantle it

  And bow for praise

  Sit and stir for change

  Cash our checks

  From federal claims

  Take from taxes others pay

  We claw for work

  We’ve yet to claim

  How did we get so tame?

  No wonder the rich stay so fat

  While we’re all lain to slain

  But, if God ate God

  He still wouldn’t give a damn

  ‘Cause it’s dog eat dog

  Man eat man

  ‘Cause it’s truth for truth

  And damned be damned

  God eat God

  Man eat Man

  EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS

  I knew the pope died when black smoke rose from the chimney

  We all knew another sinner’d soon take his place -- what a waste

  I know evolution done sprung from religion

  But in the courts they’d each have their own space

  And soon another liar stood proud ‘fore a camera

  Telling us all that he pleaded for peace -- oh, please

  And yet my heart filled with such a trepidation

  When I first realized I’d once seen his face

  And he wafted his proclamation

  Over lands that he did not wield

  And I fell into attrition

  Hell, I can’t complain

  ‘Cause, look, I am still here

  He’s giving his lip-service to the choir

  He’s placing all his eggs in one bassinet

  He’s on a strategic campaign for the modern

  His you-tube doctrine, you just cannot miss

  But everyone already knows

  I know you’ve got claims staked to your titles

  I know you’ve got all your ducks lined up in a row -- uh-oh

  We all know it takes one drunken domino

  To make a wicked tornado blow

  And soon another peace-maker triumphs

  And a little bit less you hate the rest -- confess

  And soon my heart froze up in intimidation

  As the so-called prophet proudly professed

  His new doctrine to all nations

  Soon sanctioned, and yet, full of regrets -- who’d guess?

  A little food for thought for progress

  Untangles a whole heap of surreptitious distress

  He’s got his dirty finger whisking in your pie-mix

  He’s got all his shit stored up and squared away -- hurray!

  He’s got a second cellphone, but who doesn’t?

  He wastes our time on cheap parlor charades

  He’s conspiring all for hire

  He’s got a smooth, suave, and sultry name

  He speaks the false texts, and he knows it

  Yet, his balloons we salute in parades

  Hey, fuck it, man

  Everyone already knows

  When sun-spots and sighs don’t help empathize

  And anger and tears only brood further fears

  And you break down and cry

  And despise all you hide

  And the hate that unfurls

  Only spurs further quarrels

  With our brothers amongst us

  Is this how we treat us?

  Just break down and beat us

  ‘Till the point we can’t take

  And spew forth our rage

  And demoralize

  Enough!

  Let’s unit

  Go on, climb that hillside

  And sing it on high…

  Preach it to the choir, brother

  Just don’t preach it to me

  ‘Cause, fuck it, man, everyone already knows

  Hey, fuck it, man, everyone already knows

  ‘Cause, fuck it, man, everyone already knows

  Hey, fuck it, man, everyone already knows

  Fuck it, man, everyone already knows

  NOT-SEE

  I see fools in the glass, I see prisms

  Seen the diademic rays of revision

  I see darts with no parts carving schisms

  I’ve seen reason but no rhyme

  I feel rhythm

  I see fields of blue

  Skies of green

  Jealous embers

  I sense pain

  I see rats, I see cats, I see dolphins

  I’ve seen fruit-salad-spies, and yes, almonds

  I see man, I see myth, evil-ution

  Seen the catastrophic strains of seclusion

  I see brown of dirt

  Skies of grey

  Concrete mountains

  I sense hate

  I see prayers that have dyed stained-glass windows

  Seen the truth that resides in dark wisdom

  I see frowns, I see clowns, I see pinions

  Seen the hand that holds back divination

  I see trees that bloom

  Rust colored hues

  Plastic clouds

  I sense doom

  I’ve seen swine once divine but now kneeling

  I’ve heard kings hold deaf ears to the needing

  Watched the fight for the right to be somber

  I see steers, I see queers, and yes, almonds

  I see time, I see space not existing

  Seen the hole re-implode throughout history

  Watched the flag be unfurled for the dying

  Tip the bowl, just let go

  Come eat almonds

  RISE UP

  You got you’re A-grade regulations and restrictions

  Greasing the palms on the backsides of pigs

  You say it’s all just one big complication

  I’ll ask you once more to think it over again

  Ooh

  But, what they gonna do when we all stand up together?

  Ooh

  What they gonna do when we all refuse to vote?

  Ooh

  What they gonna do when we hand ‘em all their pink-slips?

  Ooh

  What they gonna do when we take back control?

  Don’t watch the TV ‘cause they perpetuate mass hysteria

  Don’t read the paper it’s a dead medium

  Just walk the streets and you can talk to all the people

  About how the government makes us all out as criminals

  Ooh

  But, what they gonna do whe
n we all come together?

  Ooh

  What they gonna do when things can’t get more rough?

  Ooh

  What they gonna do when we throw down all our time-cards?

  Ooh

  What they gonna do when we’ve all had enough?

  Rise up

  What they gonna do, gonna do, gonna do?

  Rise up

  What can they say, can they say, can they say?

  Rise up

  It’s only a matter of time

  Rise up

  Before it’s all too late

  Rise up, rise up, rise up

  Before they lay us to waste

  In harsh times of economic deprivation

  The rich suggest that the poor eat their young

  Who’s to blame for all this judgmental finger pointing?

  Well, ask me again and I’ll tell you once more

  Ooh

  Who’d elect another fat cat to congress?

  Ooh

  Who’d support a one-world order?

  Ooh

  Who’d prefer us nothing more than puppets?

  Ooh

  Who’d sire their heirs to be actors/divas?

  Rise up

  What they gonna do, gonna do, gonna do?

  Rise up

  What can they say, can they say, can they say?

  Rise up

  It’s only a matter of time

  Rise up

  Before it’s all too late

  Rise up, rise up, rise up

  Before they lay us to waste

  If you follow your heat

  You’ll at least have a head start

  On all these rich idiots

  And diademic morons

  And as you’ve wasted away with the ghosts of the day

  At least you can say, “That I got no regret, I got no remorse,

  And I gave all I could to the glorious source,

  And so I abide to the vibe and the rhyme that connects all of us

  From birth back to dust

  Live your life your own way

  And don’t care what they say

  And if damned still I am

  To the true God I’ll pay!”

  So just laugh and be merry

  You don’t have that long anyway

  Enough with these guidelines

  I alone know what my life stakes

  I’m not saying that we need total anarchy

  I’m not saying we wage war on the west

  I’m not calling for total devastation

  I’m just asking to step back, take a breath…and think it over again

  SUCH IS THE WAY OF WAR

  1 - 2 - 3 - Fi-fo-fum here I come ‘round the corner with a loaded shot gun

  Got the disease, I feed, I wage war, devour

  Plant my flag, in sheep I deal, seizing power

 

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