Rabbits in the Hole - Swordplay

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