Rabbits in the Hole

As another one sets sail, another one passes
And it’s captains waving at captains waving at captains
And some may pretend colonialism is over
But they still cover the Earth in their same sorrows
Perform old adages and bad anthems
And scattered about
They still spread the same foreign Germanic and Romance languages
They don’t borrow something if they can take it now
Maybe feed you a line about how bad it is while
Reciting Biblical passages
‘til any recognizable memory vanishes
And they send in a Jesuit army to claim the souls of so-called savages
And for the rest of us under the thumb of an executive
Like a remote-control missal at his desktop
This despot plots sabotage. We split into factions
And I sing songs with the masses
Fact is I’m the same part of the public they hold captive
By the Fourth of July, we all stare into the night sky
As another bright light flashes
Another one extinguishes
As another one passes
The scene repeats itself ad infinitum
And as another one sets sail, another one crashes
The accident replays over and over again as it happens
Because for us, the sky is always falling
So we make our overtures to the captains
Enumerate our causes
Reduce ourselves into mega phone slogans and paper responses
An anonymous poem wheat pasted onto a highway billboard
Another message of love
Lit up in the spotlight
Looking out over the capital city
I see a citadel swell with civil servants in the early morning
They see the same
From their tiny offices and yawn
Some of them lose themselves in Word documents
They’re exhausted, overworked, and nauseous
They’re the polyps in the body politic
And they pray to God that they may lay claim
To any remaining water and oxygen. Another one gone!
Listen in on the nonsense
As the intercom system cuts on and off again
Stay calm, sip on coffee
Cos in the tunnels under Washington
It’s a rabbit hole that they could be all lost in
And avoiding a malcontent audience
And the television’s out of control
Breeding these bloodthirsty spectators
And I’m waiting for the day I’m in a conference room
And I’m drowned out by the euphoria
On a team of T14 lawyers
In a state of paranoia
And if attorneys are the high priests of American society
Then I’m a just go ahead and join em for ya
Fold each of my dreams in origami fashion
And flatten em out for safekeeping in a folder for ya
I’m outside on the peripheral
I perform scenes in my week’s ritual
I bang drums, bleed, sleep, dream my merits brief prove pivotal
My timeline is ephemeral
I’m full of loose particle and dark mineral
I broadcast last words, break teeth, enunciate each syllable
This place is known to welcome ghosts
Chasing plagiarism in a sundress
Who they themselves
They tend to disappear
Even camaraderie’s a contest
In this place
That’s known to welcome ghosts
And they themselves
They tend to disappear