A Song and a Poem About the Junta
By Nicholas Levis (Feb 2003)
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Back in the U.S. of Was
A Song About the Junta
Sung to the tune of The Beatles' "Back in the USSR"
(guitars - sound of airplane - intro)
*Ooooooh...*
Flew in from the E.U.
on an armored flight
The Marshal wouldn't let me pee
His interrogation took up half the night
But the plastic flag was free.
(waves U.S. flag Made in China)
I'm back in the
U.S. of Was -
Evil is as evil DOES, boy -
Back in the U.S. of Was!
Been away a MONTH - I hardly know the place
Was this really freedom's home?
Leave it to John Ashcroft to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone -
(music stops abruptly, monologue)
and don't forget to take out the batteries, like last time... yeah, I'm pulling the plug on the modem and the satellite cable, let's draw the shades here, where is that music coming from? is the TV still on? can they hear you through the microwave? where is the play station? what do you think, should I raise or lower my meds? what about the baby phone? kill the lights, no just kill the fusebox... is it off yet? can they hear us? Can we talk? etc.
(music starts again)
...I'm back in the
U.S. of nine-one-one
When will "they" blow up another one?
Back in the U.S. - back in the U.S. - back in the land on the run!
*dum dum dum*
Well, the Homeland Girls really knock me out
They've left The West behind
*dum dum dum*
DC girls know to duck and shout
And Florida's always on my muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh mind.
(over instrumental - carnival barker)
"Poindexter! Kissinger! Papa Bush! Rumsfeld! Cheney! The Wolfowitz Cabal! The Iran-Contra Killers! Halliburton Bechtel UNOCAL Enron! The Carlyle Group! And their Special Guests, the Saudi Binladin Family, are Proud to Present: An American Junta! To Prevent Peace in Our Time."
(chorus)
I'm back in the
U.S. of W (pronounced: double-you)
Ya never thought it would happen to YOU?
Back in the Land of the Coup!
*dum dum dum*
Oh, the Master's Voice it will strike you dead
He'll sort out ours from yours
*dum dum dum*
Teevee's gonna fix up everything He said
The year is always nineteen-nineteen-nineteen-nineteen eighty-four
Point me to your
camera way up in the sky!
Seed me with your magic chip!
I wanna hear the evil-doer's dying cry!
Shrug and let those missiles rip!
I'm back in the
U.S. of Was -
Evil is as evil DOES, boy -
Back in the U.S.S.R.!
(over outro and vocal "ooh-oohs" - carnival barker)
"That's the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! Your old nightmare, back today for
a repeat performance - in the former United States of America!"
(airplane passing overhead - explosion)
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The following poem was inspired by the historic visit of George W. Bush to a reading lesson at the Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
"Lucky Me - Guess I Hit the Trifecta"
Rome is aflame -
the plebeians are dying (burning!)
While Dubya Three learns to read.
What fools were we that day - who only went flying (working!)
While Dubya Three learned to read.
Of my true love's
truest smile, of her ev'ry waking mile
What is left to sort into the tomb?
Only vapor and tired freedom-justice-sibling dreams
Down to Ground Zero fall these dreams
Centurions expire
in the arms of their slaves
"Lucky me, guess I hit the Trifecta."
Even Senators must crouch down in cramped and sealed caves
"If I was Dictator, It would be easier"
This isn't what we
might have thought - Jesus would at this point do
'tis a strange reaction - from the captain and his crew
Is this really the right time - for leadership to cry?
Or should we better wonder who struck the match?
No corner of the
world - is untouched or unknowing
When rogues speak for God in the Pantheon
(the Pentagon, the Pantheon...)
Ten thousand pounds an inch on us down will be pressing
As the brokers add value on to Raytheon
(the Pentagon, the Pantheon, the Raytheon...)
I don't know how -
you were perverted
You were diverted - to the creed of tyranny
You never knew how - to do without your war
O, will your ship of freedom ever come?
I still wait,
naive, for the day of America (a miracle, heretical!)
What's this America, you say?
America never was - America to me (kill machine - unfree!)
Still America one day must finally be.
...
A shout out to Langston Hughes
and to all who've known the blues
to Zora Neale and Emma Goldman
to the Haymarket Eight and Sacco and Vanzetti
to Julius and Ethel and the Crazy Beats
America, why must you eat your children?
Yeah, to JFK and Bobby too
to Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Fred Hampton
to Paul Wellstone, the latest one they've killed - to Jim Hatfield
and to the man who could not be here tonight
to the Prophet of Tippecanoe
Tecumseh, take it away - can free your people?
Copyright (c) 2003
Nicholas Levis