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4/06/2010

I hear the drizzle

"so you see, I have come to doubt
all that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
the only truth I know is you"

I was listening to music

my iPod

That verse
of that song
repeated itself
over and over

in my mind

it resonated
with what has been sitting deep in me
bothering me
but just out of reach
a feeling of unease
distracting
but not strong enough to give itself a name

until now.

I look around me, today

and everything I once believed
about who we are
and how we live
and what we did to become who and what we are
seems to have been rendered untrue

The system is corrupt
there is a disconnect between
those who rule
and are ruled
but we are salved with hyperbole
we go back to sleep

and the slinkers, slink
obscene things done in our name
TO our name
but the money flows
and the contracts are let
and people die
in poverty and disease
because we are afraid someone will reach in our pocket.

Somehow, this all seems so wrong to me
The high ideals have been prostituted
in the name of free markets and ungodly profit
I got mine
you get yours
tough, if you can't find it.

Gordon Briggs died in the spring of '66
shot by a sniper
whatever else might have been
I don't think this is what he died for.

"and so i have come to doubt
all that i once held as true
i stand alone without beliefs
the only truth i know is you"

You.

Ndinombethe.

1st and last - lyrics from Kathy's Song, Simon&Garfunkel.

9 comments:

Tara R. said...

I fear that disillusionment is becoming a National Epidemic, and there is no cure in sight.

Nevine Sultan said...

So true, Lou. So very true, unfortunately.

Nevine

Anonymous said...

well, not sure i understood all of that. sounded like he was telling someone off.
i liked it though, got caught up in it. thanks.

Joyce-Anne said...

I think people (mostly Americans) are so willing to believe the typical "it's to good to be true", that we allow ourselves to become disillusioned.

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

The government is bloated with corruption and we, the people, are awash in entitlement.

It's unsettling. Horribly upsetting. And I don't think it can be changed.

Unknown said...

Tara R: I'm sure you're right.

Nevine: I know. I think we all have to stop listening to the rhetoric and think for ourselves.

Warriorwitch: You're welcome, WW.

Joyce-Anne: I think I understand what you mean. I hope so.

PattiKen said...

Wow. There is so much I could say to this...

With skulking political greed, disguised as civil service, fed by corruption, and enabled by indifference,

and

rosy-cheeked corporate greed, born and fattened on profits from the sale of American manufacturing and service to the lowest bidder,

while so many lose jobs and homes and hope,

where how can it end except badly?

(And that may be my worst run-on sentence ever.)

Suburban Farm said...

"The high ideals have been prostituted
in the name of free markets and ungodly profit
I got mine
you get yours
tough, if you can't find it."

Words after my own heart. I am an economist by trade and a banker by career. I entered this career because I wanted to understand "The Game" to at least survive in it if not to change it a little for the better. But with every year that passes by the more disappointed I become with the way things are heading - this has been an overarching theme in my writing of late.

Gretchen said...

Lou, Do you ever think about it in terms of this...

maybe what is now is what has always been, and what used to be was just a different me. Now that I'm a grown-up me, I see the truth. When I was a wee me, I saw the world through rose-colored glasses.

In other words, the sonsabitches have always been sonsabitches, it's just that it takes some maturity and perspective to realize that we had the wool pulled over our childish eyes.