Oh hope-filled mortician and variegated smoker
Dead-end road runner on legs of clay pigeon
honest politician or fire engine stoker
Wing clipped hirsute protester on soapbox religion
Starving obesity with lips dripping hollowed-out laughter
Sea-sick fisherman on the brink of planetary extinction
Shipwrecked aquarium attendant on the lip of hereafter
Lords and ladies with faces of dubious distinction
Anti-establishment disgruntled pulpit basher
Words strung flashing the murderous headlines
Friendly fire neighbourhood conscience washer
Ears for the princess of anti-personnel mines
For that that which you wish for so very fervently hard
Or would have yourself doubtless unquestioningly believe
That the pursuit of money is the marked and malicious card
Secreted yet in the politicians unaccountable sleeve
Or that the contract you blindly and confidently enter
With your heart but forgetting the mind to engage
Is the piece that is taken from the sweet doughnut centre
lining the pockets handmade for the master of the monopoly age
Oh you princes, you slaves to the wage and the inevitable tumbling markets
Oppressed by your own hand in the grinding gears of the debt machine
Stumbling to find what lies in the gutter where you yesterday parked it
And tomorrow will demand your demotion to the one designated to clean
It doesn’t matter a mind, a minute dimension that refuses to oil the wheel
Padded for comfort designer designed and central bank approved
So that it squeaks through the night when you have no intention to feel
The awful and nagging regret that you keep in a lifetime once removed
Title from The Fall's one time record label.
Dead-end road runner on legs of clay pigeon
honest politician or fire engine stoker
Wing clipped hirsute protester on soapbox religion
Starving obesity with lips dripping hollowed-out laughter
Sea-sick fisherman on the brink of planetary extinction
Shipwrecked aquarium attendant on the lip of hereafter
Lords and ladies with faces of dubious distinction
Anti-establishment disgruntled pulpit basher
Words strung flashing the murderous headlines
Friendly fire neighbourhood conscience washer
Ears for the princess of anti-personnel mines
For that that which you wish for so very fervently hard
Or would have yourself doubtless unquestioningly believe
That the pursuit of money is the marked and malicious card
Secreted yet in the politicians unaccountable sleeve
Or that the contract you blindly and confidently enter
With your heart but forgetting the mind to engage
Is the piece that is taken from the sweet doughnut centre
lining the pockets handmade for the master of the monopoly age
Oh you princes, you slaves to the wage and the inevitable tumbling markets
Oppressed by your own hand in the grinding gears of the debt machine
Stumbling to find what lies in the gutter where you yesterday parked it
And tomorrow will demand your demotion to the one designated to clean
It doesn’t matter a mind, a minute dimension that refuses to oil the wheel
Padded for comfort designer designed and central bank approved
So that it squeaks through the night when you have no intention to feel
The awful and nagging regret that you keep in a lifetime once removed
Title from The Fall's one time record label.
11 comments:
I have read your last two posts....
I am cherring.
Great work.
N
About that lifetime once removed – even when we eliminate the different masks for different people the one we come down to is still a mask, the hardest to loose and most worth unraveling — Maya's veil obscures in both directions if only pierced, not truly obviated. You certainly have the knack for letting light shine on the roiling behind that which you wish for so very fervently hard. What must be done about dependence on the facade can be done by no one else.
bravo pi..well done!
YEAH !!! it's snowing .... it's so magical...
Oh you princes, you slaves to the wage and the inevitable tumbling markets
Oppressed by your own hand ...
tell me: when you have three children, a house mortgage to make, food, clothing - the essentials to provide ... what are the alternatives to slaving for wages ??
Red, just a guess — the alternative to feeling that you have to live your life is feeling that you get to live your life — and the great thing about that is that it is completely a matter of personal choice, no matter how hard circumstances make it to maintain.
Okay red, let's all bury our heads in the sand - hail to the chief and rally round the flag; praise the lord and our wonderful system that grants us all the right to live like princes while those who make our shoes at knock down prices can be grateful for the opportunity and those that we deem unworthy of polishing our shoes can starve on our spare change charity.
Most of us don't have any realistic alternative to wage slavery; this does not mean we can't question it; can't wonder if in fact their are alternatives; question whether we are willing or reluctant slaves.
You know, all the the questions they don't teach you to ask at school as they prepare you to take your place in the machine.
You're bang on the nail about the masks Greg - I always refer back to Billy Joel's 'The Stranger' which I first heard as a teenager (and in fact used as the subject for one of my art class projects at school).
What I find amusing is that we now have the added opportunity to create masks as we parade ourselves before strangers in the electronic ether - this is most notable in the way that some bloggers (present company excluded of course) show diffent tones depending on where they are commenting.
hmmm - I think G&G's comment answered my real question perfectly .....
You know, I have always admired your writing because you never soft shoe around the bigger questions and you appeared to welcome all comments and questions - whether they agreed with your point of view, didn't agree, or just questioned it...
i suppose looks ARE deceiving....or did i just catch you on a bad day?
..... i will soon qualify for state assistance: reduced lunches and free breakfasts for my kids at school as i climb my way down the golden ladder of american success
(my choice, of course - i could have stayed in my golden cage ...)
...you never know pi, i might be shining your shoes at the doors of RMP & Company before you enter its hallowed doors to earn your 'wages' ....
ouch - that burned ...... even for a redhead.
Red - if I knew what you were talking about (RMP?) I would respond.
regarding the bits I do understand: I have no problem with anyone disagreeing with my point of view - I don't really care since who knows whether I'm right or wrong and who's to say whether right and wrong are the correct terms to use in the analysis of thoughts and ideas.
As it stands I tell it like I see it and I respond to comments in the tone they are delivered.
Pi,
as we are unable to leave voice mail comments, even ascertaining commentary tone can be a tricky thing.
but then again, there is no right tone nor wrong tone to assume, is there?
geesh! remind me not to get on your bad side ....
(oh no...there we go again: bad? good? just adjectives, pisces - only adjectives ...)
repentantly yours,
red
pee ess: i miss the snow.
you know pisces, i'm having a hard time going to sleep because of you.
So listen, for the public record, whatever i did or didn't do; say or didn't say; tone or non-tone i adopted; toe-stepping-on i committed,
i can assure you that absolutely no malicious or intentionally hurtful thought or wish or deed were present before, during or after its inception.
any latent hostility that might be perceived is simply spill over from my current circumstances and has absolutely no connection or ties to blogs, bloggers, posts or comments.
in plain english:
Stop Being a Fuckwit.
You know I'm mad about you (and wholeheartedly embrace my own skewed mask of insanity.)
fondly,
red
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