Dana Westover

2016

So here we are fighting the Civil War again

and the Tea Party is handing out tea with arsenic in it

there’s a big ‘ol horse race, but there don’t seem to be any horses

and you wonder what the truth is and who’s going to spin it

And the talk talk talk is more venal than ever

bright angry faces light up the glowing screens

there’s always a message, but lately it’s a little less hidden from view

it’s not about somebody else, it’s just about you

And it’s all driven by so much bad money it makes your head spin

the banks are soulless beasts that have swallowed the world

and the wheels on the bus go round and round

but where it’s taking us nobody’s really sure

And it’s all so appallingly fake you think it must be some kind of satire

is there really anybody who buys all this stuff?

the ghost of 1929 looms out of the fog

and the little Monopoly man tips his hat and he shuffles off

And everything you say and everything you do is being stored in a database somewhere

the idea of privacy just went up in smoke

there’s an eye peering at you from a bump in the ceiling

and that stuff about “land of the free” seems a bit of a joke

You go looking for a job, and they go looking in your closet

you got to pay in blood just to get minimum wage

you want an education? well, that’s just for rich folks now

and there’s an air of grim desperation about the schoolkids these days

And everybody’s good nature seems a little drained away

standing in the vast parking lot in the heat of the day

putting up straw heroes just to catch the wind

and waving our little flags in the faces of our friends

And you wonder why you feel so lost in such a familiar place

there’s really no reason why your heart should be racing so fast

it’s just that there’s only so much time left to take care of things

and we’ve overrun the place, and we keep repeating the past