smug complacency

there are days when all i want to do
is run naked fult tilt boogey
screaming through the streets
leaving all you milktoast ninnies
whining in your lukewarm tea

where are all you sniveling bastards
while the bloody war is raging hot ?
can't you see the walls are crumbling ?
as the enemy slavers gleefully
outside our nearest fortress gate
it's that self-righteous smug complacency
that seems to blind you to the truth
or perhaps you've resigned yourself
already to your half-assed fate
don't you care ? can't you hear those
trumpets blaring ? don't you feel the
rumbling tremors just beyond our walls ?
perhaps you choose to numb your mind
to no longer sense the looming threat
or you've committed some long time ago
to join with them once the battle dust has set

it's easier to stay within the safety
of your off-white mortgaged walls
and leave the empassioned needy ones
the sick and desperate hungry ones
the ones who have no other choice
but to rise up and defend our land....or die !

if you wonder why you suffer
and you need to dull your pain
with whatever you can clutch or grab
no matter what the price to pay
it's likely that you've sold yourself
to some subtle scheme or plot
to the clever barker at the carnival

he's always been there on the job
waiting for yet another hapless rube
to bite upon his shimmering lure
he could never care about
what it is you truly need
it was always all about his
promise to fulfil your hunger
which he could never feed

once you realize what has happened
you may hasten to seek him out
but the tents would not be there now
he'd be gone into the empty wind
to that place from whence he came
with what you chose to give him
that you claim he stole from thee

the master wasn't known to
have frequented temple halls
twas the roadhouse and the traveller's inn
where he found his place to be
the folks that he encountered there
misguided or deluded though they be
were but sincere in their simplicity
with no unspoken motives or desires
only but to live for yet another day
with hopes of a better one to come