Raised on Rock (draft, as ever)

You shine your light on my sapling
but never any rain to nourish
I need the food of stormy spring
if you expect me to flourish

see I was raised on rock
a hard outer shell to secure my soul
and withstand each knock
'til I can't take it no more and I lose all control
I got to make it stop
you know that one broken part's fixin' to take its toll
yeah I was raised on rock
but I had to roll

now I walk across desert sands
dryness and heat surely try me
if I could just have helping hands
to support and amplify me

'cause I was raised on rock
a hard outer shell to imprison my soul
with an iron lock
'til I can't take it no more and I lose all control
I got to make it stop
you know that one broken part could bring down the whole
yeah I was raised on rock
but I had to roll

my best slammed down, I want to cry
you say suck it up and be tougher
that mindset is exactly why
untold millions more will suffer

'cause I was raised on rock
a hard living hell to deprive my soul
and absorb each shock
'til I can't take it no more and I lose all control
we got to make it stop
you know that one broken heart will beget many more
yeah I was raised on rock
but I had to roll

Meet Me on the Left

There are two different contemporary pop songs about meeting in the middle. Thus I felt a need to write this.

****

Look around
there is no middle ground
right is wrong
Where do you belong?
Won't you meet me on the left?

A compromise
will e'er more shut your eyes
the middle validates
racism and hate
Won't you meet me on the left?

Meet me on the left
Help to ward off freedom's theft
Meet me on the left
Without you we're bereft

World dies
oceans on the rise
carbon to curb
rouse the undisturbed
Won't you meet me on the left?

Folks get shot
a system fully bought
you cannot deal
with the fully evil
Won't you meet me on the left?

Meet me on the left
Help to ward off freedom's theft
Meet me on the left
Help us lifting this heft

You mean to accept
as human precept
eternal jail
just for being female
Won't you meet me on the left?

Look around
there is no middle ground
stand and fight
don't give in to the right
Won't you meet me on the left?

Meet me on the left
Help to ward off freedom's theft
Meet me on the left
Else you can… get effed

Monday, October 21, 2013

Ten days to Halloween. Or is it "Hallowe'en"? Whatever it is, it allows certain novelty shops to exist in buildings that used to contain renowned chain stores. There's a meme floating around that shows one in place of what used to be a major Tower Records installment. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but in my town, the former Circuit City building and the former Blockbuster Video building are now both Halloween "Spook-taculars" or some such play on words. Novelty shops make a pleasant disguise for the scary reality that is our gop-led country and economy, don't they?

"Spook-tacular". I'm awfully sick of these Halloween-themed puns. It's the same ones every year. Halloween's no fun anymore. Everything's been sanitized. Can 27-year-olds like me trick-or-treat? Probably not. Cops would be on me like Anthony Weiner on a mobile device. Or something. I used to be better at hip celebrity/politician jokes. But it's a shame; I think an adult desperately seeking free candy in a bad economy is wonderfully spooky and in spirit. Also a shame that I have no costume party to go to this year; I'd rent a suit and go as a gop. Just as well, though; I ain't got the dough to rent that suit.

Here, have a photo from last year's party instead. The "pharaoh" is a long-time friend and classmate's brother. I didn't really have any ideas, so I just took my old black cape that I've had since I was small enough to trip over it, stuck it over my best tie-dye Dead shirt, and called myself "Super Outsider".



Back to the future, which is murder. ("Live in London" version there; tremendous release, LiL.) How 'bout that government shutdown? I don't have much to say about it myself; it's all fast become a blur to me. Sequester, debt ceiling, shutdown, stalemate, congress — all these words are just noise now — like a parade of garbage trucks on the other side of the front door except nonessential. (Get it?) Things are bad; I know it. I don't have hopes the least bit high for myself when I go to test for a temporary, non-social job on Tuesday, let alone anybody else for longer periods.

Ah, but haven't I whined on here enough about my distaste for this anti-social, roboticized, outsourced western society?

Something I've noticed lately is this:

Almost everybody I encounter, be it in person or via media images, their faces look almost exactly the same. Same features, same demeanor, same style of movements — male or female, black or white, senior citizen or six-month-old. I don't know how well I can describe this face, or expression; it kind of seems like the wearer is in a deep haze of thought — one from which it's highly dubious that they will ever emerge. Often their mouth is hung slightly open; their head smoothly and very slowly bobs. I have no idea what this means, if anything; it's only the last couple weeks that I've really noticed it. Just a passing thought, perhaps, that I'm passing along to cyberspace with the fantasy that a fellow traveler will know exactly what I mean and excitedly say so.

These are the thoughts that flit through one part of my head as another feels nasty sinus pressure that helps prevent me sleeping.

I bid you as pleasant a Monday as you can experience in your current circumstance.

I'm Cheshire Adams, and I Approve This Message

On the social networks — Facebook, the new Twitter account, and so on — I do not often blatantly promote my political opinions. I happily befriend people who promote theirs, most of them on the left, but I don't do it myself. I don't do it much in face-to-face, real-life conversation or beyond either. No lawn signs, very few vocal discussions/arguments, etc. I think part of the reason for this is that, well, (a) I don't get to interact with people in person much in the first place, but (b) I realize at my deepest instincts that no political expression of mine is likely to sway the opinion of anyone who encounters it. In cyberspace, chances are you're only friends with people who agree with you anyway. And anyone else that you're friends with is either hopelessly apathetic or not going to be your friend much longer. People got fixed mindsets; they believe what they want to believe. Y'know?

So, any political things I have to say go more or less exclusively here, on Lucy in Cyberspace. And, right here and now, I'm going to attempt to summarize my political beliefs. Bear with me, if you dare.

I want peace and civility. I want people to work together and help each other out without discrimination. In other words, I do not want an every-man-for-himself (and every-woman-for-himself, in the words of Mickey Rooney in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World) free-for-all without compassion. Of course, guess what we got? And, as I've pointed out on here a couple posts down, guess what clearly ain't going away anytime soon?

So it seems that my beliefs and desires most closely align with the political left. In this country, that translates as "democrat". And please don't bother me with "down with the two-party system!" talk; the fixed mindsets of the general public won't allow for the success of new alternatives. Like it or not, republicans and democrats are what we got. And, like it or not (I fall in the latter category), the whole damn thing is shifted toward the aggressive right. So, from my perspective, our only hope is to vote democratic and see that we, the people, can't gradually influence people to drift back left in time.

Lots and lots of time.

That's about all I had to say for now. I now return you to your pictures of pets with sub-literate captions.

I don't like to get too overtly political in my cybertravels, but here's a thought that amused me: I think we ought to start calling republicans "gops". The derivation of that term should be obvious, and it just sounds very much like an old-fashioned slur — something racist or homophobic. "Fuckin' gop!" I should think the political right's opponents should be happy to have such an easy derogatory name to use on these greedy, oppressive, angry people. Plus, it sounds like "cops" — people loved by gops, not so much by, well, others. I think both sides could come to embrace the idea. You be my gop, I'll be your lib.

Ecch.....

I have a politician throat today......



(I'm sure you can guess the punchline.)