Given An Inch

There’s a smile that makes me sick
a knowing grin worn on many faces I see

When does having money
make everything one does okay?

The filth, the acts, the things they do
I guess make them better than me

because there’s a bank account
that is bigger than mine today?

The Patience allotted
the sins forgotten
the gestures and looks left lying about

The acts forgiven
the lack of inhibition
is given inches of shadow of doubt

That’s taken for miles

and my head’s down
so far down my hair hangs at my side
and I don’t want to be along for this ride

Where entitlement and abuse is rewarded
and nightmares grown in the dark
Where gratification and intemperance
take priority over the just and the heart

because someone has a leg up
one way or another
I can’t look anymore, can’t breathe
I’m beginning to smother.
 





You can turn a key
pull an umbrella on the rain
touch glass with a hammer
it all turns out the same

dirty games with pain in mind
second guessing at the stains
don't have to look hard to find
nothing has capacity to change

you might lift some sunshine out
long enough to dull the pain
but please, withdraw all doubt
it will always come back to rain

it's that skip in the record
the fly in the vaseline
filthy anomaly in something beautiful
you always wake up from a dream

it will bend to remain
a system with a drain
same game, different name
not a fucking thing's changed

beautiful things turned into weapons without pity
by drooling, leering machines with one-track thinking
they are handed boarding passes and keys to the city
by wealth-impressed drones even as their ship is sinking

It's the same as it's ever been
advantage taken with entitlement's grin
smiling that filthy cheshire twisted beam
but death comes to every one

even slowly rusting machines

don't be surprise when violence comes
or retribution taps at your window and door
the price you pay when you walk without wisdom
making doormats of friends and acquaintances whores

even the slimiest practitioners
are given cart blanche
and I don't find anything funny
when a sentence is finished

with "Yeah, but they've got money"