Maintain

Listen! Listen!
Listen! It was a great day
Everything was going fine for a while

Waiting for the tide to break
Stakes are high as empire state
Behind iron gates wide awake
Plotting my escape
I got a modest client base
From the wars fought
So I don't have to shovel
Coal while the overlords watch
An honest day's work for the
Sharp sure shot who's
Weaponized words could turn swine
To pork chops
We shape pliant minds in trying times
Half gods by design asking why
The blind sore spot
Consulted analysts, subway evangelists
Holy men, shamans
Prophets and old manuscripts
Read by the soft light
Of citronella candle sticks
To keep the bloodsuckers at bay
Put 'em all on display
Free myself from the beast's rib cage
Mouth like an automatic
Tongue like a switch blade i paid my dues
I lopped off the serpent's head
The check's in the mail like
Old Jack Burton said

Through it all you maintain, play the game
State your aim, embrace change, create a lane
Stake your claim
Disconnect from the mainframe
Bite the hand that feeds
Falsehood and break chains
Wrestle with your soul separate
From the whole the more you try to mask it
The less you're in control
I've lived half my life
By the pleasure principle
And shot the poison to relieve
The pressure in my skull

I saw a man walk the
Streets whipped and bleeding
Every drop spilled fed the earth
And gave it meaning
Eden blossomed in a barren landscape
The priest class sealed it off with
Mandates and secret hand shakes
Now, we brave a new world
A wilderness of mirrors
Of lies and half truths that
Instill a sense of fear
A telescreen waste land
Over wrought with lost soda
Pop social activists
That pose for the photo op
Look at all the zombie youth falling prey
Starving for attention I can see their
Ribs from a mile away
High praise from the taste makers
Ape each others' styles ride every wave
And pander to your base nature
I fought a war inside
Boxed with the lord of flies
Lived what you glorify
Saw through distorted eyes
Reported live, from a fortified prison
Where you're taught to trust cold
Dead logic over vision

Through it all you maintain, play the game
State your aim, embrace change, create a lane
Stake your claim
Disconnect from the mainframe
Bite the hand that feeds
Falsehood and break chains
Wrestle with your soul separate
From the whole the more you try to mask it
The less you're in control
I've lived half my life
By the pleasure principle
And shot the poison to relieve
The pressure in my skull

Poets are heralding great warnings
Hipping many castaway’s heads