Living Through The End of Times

There’s danger in the air, but
I have to go to work

It smells like putrid anger out there
Festering wound like, violence
It rushes their bloodstreams like cocaine
Freedom pounds their drum, supposedly, but

I hear it like oppress us
Kill us
Put us in camps so they don’t have to look at us anymore
Free to be free of us, I guess

They throne the orange God King in place of the real one
Prove the religion they stand on only means
Whatever balloon animal they twist it into, like
Whatever serves their purpose best

We have to hold it by its face and
Punch it in the nose, or
Do we have to make ourselves bigger?
I don’t know that it will matter once the teeth come out

I hope it swims away
I have coffee brewing and laundry to fold, and
A bathroom to clean, and
There’s no real time to stop them, so

I’ll have to fit it into this good consumers schedule

In between phone calls arguing about the cost of my healthcare
I’ll watch the news while the bank prints my new card after
Some guy in Pennsylvania needed my last fiver more than I did

I’ll keep the attitude positive so I don’t spook the others, but
We’re all varying levels of scared already
Around the water cooler, like
We’d rather talk about the uptick in tornadoes than the tanks in the street

They believe in one man more than I’ve ever believed in anything
Heroes are just people, are just actors, are just men who say things, but

They watch their tower made of cement,
Made of our blood, rise
They foam at the mouth for it
Chant love at it so it grows into walls and
Executions

I drink this shit like Kool aid
In the chorus of the siren song warning us away from an edge, but
It’s already crumbled beneath us, and
We’re falling

The news isn’t great
The doctor’s out of surgery
This country is in critical condition we’ll pay out the nose for, but
No one’s listened since D.C. turned the pandemic off

We’re probably just faking it
Raising our temperature so we don’t have to go to school in the morning
Pretend there aren’t shooters in the hallways
Pretend for a minute that normal means feeding kids instead of burying them

I think I said the quiet part out loud
We haven’t been the same since 2020, or
2012, or
Maybe further back

Right wing agenda in the air
They’ve got drones, I mean
Missiles, I mean,
Holy shit they’re pointing it at all of us, but

My lunch is packed and I have to go to work