Smile and Say Cheese

by  shaun lawton

  

 in  a disinformational media feeding frenzy  

cooperational  -  no such thing - the logic's backwards -

    and we're not cooperating - just coexisting 

in a tumultuous barrel not water-tight or waterproof 

 or even water resistant we're just a  soluble solution

 from the moment of conception  to death's instant 

we're apparitions in the midst of dissolution 

   under the impression we wrote a constitution 

to protect our rights to ammunition 

when the whole point was to agree 

we were made to be equal 

    and if you think that's weak,

 well you're as strong as the most fragile link 

all because you think your shit don't stink

 if we end up being held by a thread 

it better not be you the few the proud the true 

  the Marines must be more than mere machines 

because that fate won't hold our weight  

You on the couch with your self fulfilled prophecy, ouch

 sign on the dotted line your Mortal Will a fantasy  

born of fear and baptized with lies 

   mark the sign of the cross before you fetishize 

and transpose the blood of Christ  

      with blackened oil slicks among the fast

 and furious tricks along the highway to Hell 

 Oh, well you done cooked it now  your Christmas Goose 

just another fowl fallen  into your trap 

your Spider Mother's woven from the purest silk

 of imagination and now its still got its grip 

on a weakening nation  paralyzed inside

 its own constricted coils  so this is auto-suffocation 

endured in our nation  amid the polarized extremes

 out virtue-signaling each other in a deranged competition 

sort of like a pissing contest held by twelve year olds 

just waiting for the day the other side folds

 when since the beginning we forged a blood pact 

  to make sure we set aside our differences 

and that's a fact set in place long ago 

so we can solve our problems at hand

  amid a planet full of nations trying

 to outpace one another selling their own brand 

  of culture, goods and services while we champion

 freedom dripping with hypocrisy injected by the churches 

clamoring for more money and power 

so the will of God can claim the hour 

   when all along  the spiritual teachings of every known religion

 mirror each other revealing there's no division needed 

between people of different race, gender and nation 

we could stand to learn from each other

 instead of making accusations of cultural appropriation 

why on Earth can't everyone see one side 

needs the other or we'll never be free? 

 it's due to deep rooted quantum calculations 

too complicated for us to grasp out of hand

 which is why we say "let it be" so equilibrium may be given the time 

it needs to be achieved and while we wait we grease the wheels 

with this thing called faith whether you choose to capitalize it 

or not and regardless of how little or much of it you've got left 

there's enough to go around and I should know 

because I've found the proof every once in a while

 whenever a stranger returns my smile. 

     

    

      

Closed Circuit Vaccine

by raving reporter shaun grub 

Not an anti-vaxxer, just an "anti-truther"
Not against knowledge, though wary of college

Never a QAnoner, it's a matter of honor

Won't let fear get the best of me, that's for the rest of ye

The line's been drawn in the sand, I know on which side I stand

I stand on the side of the dumbfounded majority 

Squared off against the accusers in the shrinking minority 

With their heads so full of gangster television shows

Their admiration for this 45th president clearly grows

To the point their dedication to democracy has been blind-sided

Now vengeance is the only state to which they're all united 

We all can see their definition of "great" is violence 

MAVA should be tattooed on their foreheads 

Along with three hundred thousand tears 

After they've been imprisoned for manslaughter

For maybe just a few sobering years 

Face it, without education much of our society has gone feral 

We all ignore ignorance at our collective peril

The Kool-Aid being drunk is nothing but processed Fear 

Now the tables have been turned in this country my dear 

The former majority's monopoly on morality has backfired

Until our burgeoning multi-cultural populace is sick and tired

And that's on our outmoded laws from the one-inch bible belt

Withdrawn for all the wife beatings that they've dealt 

Any impartial observer with a high school education 

Can easily see the televangelical destruction of our nation 

And it all boils down to an excess of needless profiteering 

Money's the root of the problem from which we are reeling

The only solution is for sworn in citizens to outvote them while

The craven among us are aiding and abetting this cancer to spread

Because fear and pride have put a check-mate in their head 

When power and force are all that's left in their poker hand 

They'll lay down those cards in this once promising land 

The only trick we really have left in this game up our sleeve

Is whether their hand will be face-down so they can just leave

After they fold to crawl back under their stones for a spell 

Until the same old cycle's repeated in this self-fulfilled Hell

But with just enough luck and fair representation 

In the well regulated voting system of this great nation 

We can cultivate civic duty in our halls of education 

In the few years ahead we can reset our priority 

To hold on to our dream of placing our trust and authority 

In the people of this great land as our founding father's intended

Otherwise we'll soon face the day that democracy ended

And I'm here to reassure you in case it's not clear 

It's the red states destroying our democracy here

All because of their self righteous ignorance and fear

Pointing their fingers at all the liberals in spite

Of the fact that the lessons of Jesus were right

Love and forgiveness are more powerful than might

And greedy transparent politicians in their two dollar suits

Will trample over the rest of us while they're in cahoots

And the pride and prejudice stemming from the red states

In their own bible the message has been written of their fates

If we stopped pointing our fingers and just turned our cheeks

We could resolve this national stale mate in a matter of weeks.

Head Lines

by shaun lawton

Machine learning engineers will not exist in ten years. 
Between earnings financiers rot and persist with their fears. 
Unseen burnings in Algiers will not be met with cheers. 
Empty furnaces shifting gears bought to collect our tears. 

Remaining churning drifting ought to inspect our peers. 
Blaming yearning sifting onto cakes with powdered sugars.
Framing turning lifting up and waking with roused spirits.
Arranging her next of kin to check up on her with carrots. 

A stranger's blessed in sin to dress up in furs and garrotes. 
A stray germ crossed a line to lessen some populations. 
Astringent qualities are fine to worsen a few conditions. 
Contingent oddities a dime a dozen renew confusions. 

Continental paradise in time frozen into contusions. 
Fountain accepts pairs of dice instead of just pennies.
Mountain adepts stare at the ice with a sense of ease. 
Mounting attention spared the price that blends in the breeze.

New Whirled Hors d'oeuvres

by shaun lawton

You know those who use the word globalist derogatorily
full stop you already know what door they walked through
into the red-bricked building marked Conspiracy 101
Here's a theory just because it's a new world order
doesn't mean it has to be Mordor for the love of God
let's put our heads together and get our kids to vote
or better yet instead of chasing booty can we concentrate
on our civic duty? If Jesus Christ died for our sins and
the Buddha continually grins who's the joke on while all
this fake news and disinformation spins and tomorrow's
loser under the current administration wins don't you get it
the main reason there's worldwide turmoil is because we let it
happen while getting distracted meanwhile all the evidence
against them gets redacted while we're all getting hyperlinked
with clickbait to a virtual reality prison we live in cuz we're
the inmates of our own chosen asylum only the walls aren't
made of rubber they're comprised of pixels keeping us mesmerized
by our own design dancing before the rods and cones of our eyes
and a whole lot of y'all wanna despise the idea of uniting nations
to make the world a better place wtf's wrong with your face
unless it's not really yours anymore that must be it the doppelganger
in the mirror done switched places with you already sometime in
the dead of night while you up and sleptwalked into the bathroom
now the person who returned to their bed to go  to sleep and got woke
this morning isn't even you anymore just a pale imitation of what
came before once upon a time when you thought for yourself
you were just a kid pretending to be an elf or imagining dragons
were caught in the clouds and now you're just evaporating on
a street corner while you vape away the day your identity erased
what else can I say big man on campus who believes the world's flat
just to get a rise out of spite from a fellow citizen how's that for
an amusing gesture meanwhile y'all still really believe in chemtrails
and reptilians and that colonizing Mars is a good idea when we're
trapped down here in a paradise being degraded if you ask me
y'all are just jaded it's sad really staying awake with our dream faded
like this they say ignorance is bliss but y'all done taken the piss out of it
already hold steady now I ain't done this goes out to every last one of you
who think power exists in money and lies well I got news for you see
that's a disguise worn by the psychopaths among us who try to get a rise
out of the best of you and you guessed it they done pulled the wool
over your eyes so long ago you think what you're seeing is the real world
From where we stand on the ground it's far more lucid and blue than you
could even imagine now peel off those blinders and open your ears even
if it takes some of you years to see the truth hidden out in plain sight
and hear the call ringing out day and night we are the stars reflected here
on Earth each one of us an immortal spirit for what it's worth so if you
don't mind my saying so pull your heads out your asses and maybe sign up
for socioeconomics classes and take all the power that was originally yours
back from the man who's hijacked
the white house in a personal attack against you and your family and all
your descendants it's got nothing to do with the declaration of independence
we're all in this worldwide game together so best take aim at your sisters
and brothers and choose your ammo either deadly hate or to love one another
it all comes down to this one choice unfortunately for you they've stolen
your voice and if you want to hear how they performed that one trick
it's by feeding you fear that you swallowed hook line and sinker and now
you can't even hear when the truth is spoken straight to your face
for example a new world order's the best thing that could happen
to this place it just takes men and women who can think for themselves
and not be led around their closed circuit Hells by a leash attached
to their collars and kept complacent by corporate cast spells and if
you want to keep it that way stay bent over and puckered cuz
that's fresh for twenty nineteen, suckas.

FANTASIAMERIQUE

by shaun lawton

As you've guessed, 
this is a narrative 
told from an untrust-
worthy source, but I 
ask you, in all honesty: 
how much better 
is your trusted source? 
I thought so. Now back 
to the factual approach. 
You may not know me, 
but I'll prove to you that 
what I say is true; by the 
time I finish this sentence, 
which in and of itself 
reflects there is a thought 
to be thought of--otherwise 
how could I write it out-?
-I will have shown with 
refutable precision that 
even the most common 
thoughts of a six year old
are mere companions 
to a host of boiling 
imaginings, and that its those 
catapulted into fortune 
who get to be considered 
lucky by their less well to do 
brethren (when they're anything 
but) that end up getting what -?
-because everyone knows 
no matter which way the 
wind blows, it's who you 
know, don't you know-?
-and how to show your 
feelings to those in the 
know who know you know 
they know--if you know 
what I'm saying--is that 
the whole point of playing 
their game-? -even though 
its been the same old game 
since Eden came, it's like 
praying, children's laughter, 
like a lancing wound, or a 
short disaster in a preaching 
mood, there's no worse food 
in terms of nutritional value, 
so the thing to do is let them 
laugh at you -?- I don't think 
so, not where I come from, no; 
so how about you look down 
your street, can you tell me 
where its open ends meet-? 
-and please share the secret here 
with the rest of us until we 
dare remember that when 
our priorities begin getting 
way too stacked forgiveness 
will dissolve them
just like that...

DON'T YOU KNOW

Everybody so caught up in this undertow
of daily momentum, going to work, paying our bills,
gettin' 'er done, on the run, making money, saving coins,
spending bling, yet no matter where you go, be it Alabama,
Alaska, Argentina, Austria, Afghanistan, Arizona, Washington D.C,
your house, my place, homeless shelters, hospitals, communes,
public parks, hotels, hostels, bus stations, train stations, police stations, centers for disease control, centers of humanitarianism, churches, concert halls, high schools, dog shelters, gardens, beaches, on this side of the ocean, on that side, it doesn't seem to matter--life continues its relentless churning and toiling and working and boiling and cleaning and singing and praying and laughing and all the while as preachers teach and teachers preach and everyone reaches toward each other or away from it all, no matter how big or small, how well-meaning or fawning or preening, no matter how finely educated or how many degrees are hung up on our walls, no matter how rich or how poor, we can't seem to even open the door wide enough to air things out or slow down quickly enough our mutual industriousness polluting, feuding, rooting and contaminating our land, our oceans, our skies, our rivers, the air we breathe, the water we drink, even our own blood, no matter how much we care to think, it's a rat race en masse to grab ass or get to the top of the money heap, to get it cheap or squeeze ourselves into that one percent, or if all else fails to wave it all away and hit the hobo rails, hitchhike across the USA, walk on the wild side or dare to take a fast ride on the coattails of the willing, while the unforgiving continue to replicate and the hopeless among us wait, can we get an amen and not a hung jury, can we quit bickering over half a dozen and sixes, over the existence of gods or a supreme being, dare we give each other a nod from across the aisle, after awhile maybe we should all take a break, in shifts, if you get my drift, to fix the things that matter, like food, clothing, shelter, water, air, a sustainable environment, it really is a no brainer, so how come it appears as if we haven't become any saner?

Particle Pollution Blues

Air quality ain't nice when the particulate matter keeps  climbing 
and when the overcritical political climate begins to rise the timing
coincides with the polar icecaps melting all the while those in denial
selected to lead us will seek their revenge in a fashion most grievous
You could almost call it mischievous if it wasn't so malignant and 
deleterious, I'm well aware of this, upheaval's in the air awakened
and if I'm not mistaken it will break in and shatter all our expectations
with which we look out through our fierce visors at the world
For this mass tectonic shockwave bootstraps are optional and recommended
Hang on tight while we gather our wits to figure out what it is we defended
Never mind we don't have the time it's barely enough to hold on and survive
Disregarding one critical matter to focus on another in order to just stay alive

CLICK BAIT

Master bait don't wait get it straight 
our fate too late ain't it great fuel
hate carry freight slung weight 
Webgate on the plate prison crate 
blind date hateful eight third rate 
perma slate world spate birth rate 
floodgate collate lightweight gyrate 
frustrate magnate mandate castrate 
substrate free state stagnate prorate 
schoolmate gestate hotplate update 
primate irate concentrate abrogate 
city state captivate attenuate recapitulate 
circumnavigate underestimate the fertility 
and infant mortality rate but don't remunerate 
the secretary of state before it's too late to
get it straight we're all just regurgitated click bait 
proliferating to masturbate in a sophisticated date 
to participate obliterate cross-pollinate and degenerate 
an invertebrate set to exacerbate the confederate 
contaminant of our degenerate union unless we 
commemorate and authenticate a premeditated 
emancipation extrapolated from our ejaculation 
elucidating to enunciate and determine an appropriate 
surrogate to motivate and navigate or arbitrate 
for an advocate to fixate a rebate by a due date 
before we annihilate our growth rate with a stalemate 
we continue to delegate and devastate with click bait

Paul McCartney's Video

the Meat Industry Doesn't Want You To See.  
The meat in your skull so convoluted the Mc
Cartney Industry doesn't want you to know. 

The thoughts stuck in your head Paul's In-
dustry doesn't want you to recall. The same 
industry fortified by the collectively mindless 
Customer fueling Commerce with enough CCs 
of sterilized vitamins to feed a horde of bees 
collecting into a growing humming beard. 

All with commercial advertising broadsides 
dispatching declarations of independence, 
mind you. If you don't mind at all, that is. 

I mean if you're completely mindless about it. 

Everywhere you look, the fact that the tail 
has eaten itself and the tongue will never 
stop wagging hammers into the rest of us. 

Everyone else already left a long time ago 
the realization swiftly comes. A vacant stare 
about the lies  heard in the mirror resounding 
dead back at itself as if it were the deepest 
hidden underground surface of a lake that 
ever remained  still for periodic intervals 
reaching nearly a month at a time on a basis 
regular enough by which to set a clock 
of sufficient size to be be referred to as 
a calendar.  A rock larger than a mountain 
carved into a portable sundial you may wear 
upon your wrist. The meat industry doesn't 
want you to see this. Because if any single 
one of us were to ever accidentally figure 
out how to avoid telling the time we could 
all potentially miss the bus on the way to 
the sand melting contest. And where would 
that leave us but the proverbial forsaken dust 
in a world so concerned with telescoping how 
it is that others should perceive us that it has 
forgotten the face of its father and mothers 
and brothers and sisters and even that of its 
pop rock prodigal son. Forget about it, I'm done. 

No need to read what you see here because 
the industry doesn't want you to even think 
much less feel act and love in this whirling 
dervish scouring away hunger on the terrestrial 
planes of a vicious cycle. The next time we begin 
curving around the bend toward the gravity 
of our star look out your window and wave 
hello. And don't forget to watch Paul Mc
Cartney's video the Meat Industry 
doesn't want you to see!