Consecrated Religious Nonsense

I do not spring from biblical ashes and I will not fly up to be with some 34 virgins

No god of man has created me and all your books are but outdated fairy tales

The necessary faith you replace with dogma serves only to assuage your fears

I do not worry that my death is permanent and that not a trace of me remains

Your pabulum cannot nourish me with its artificial and phantasmal ingredients

You talk with your personal savior but I cannot hear the voices in your head

You take power by perverting whatever wisdom your dusty prophets left behind

Your vengeful, jealous, wrathful witchcraft cannot harm me if I will not believe

I must simply and politely say all your organized religions morph into forms of control

I do not descend from the incestuous bonds of the offspring of Adam and Eve

Jesus and Mohammed gained fame from martyrdom and early death like rock stars

Wily con men have since drained money and power from their fame for centuries

Employees of the catholic church are forced to wisdom via unnatural practices

What churlish god decrees that men grow beards and women cover up their faces

Explain to children why a god’s name is inscribed upon your nuclear weapons

Such gods would smile and send me straight to hell from their so-called heavens

What twisted father would send his faithful son off strapped up with explosives

What sick and vain faith holds human life as sacred but decrees that animals have no souls

What is the message when the competing one true faiths battle for control

You ought to be taxed heavily and have your toxic franchise emissions regulated

Your founders told wondrous stories now twisted by the clergy for its selfish needs

You prey upon the ignorant, poor and fearful, greedily co-opting their honest need to faith

Your calls to Jihad in god’s holy name would earn you hell, if only it existed

The dusty books and embellished translations are tried and true sales tools

Why does your god demand subjects live like pigs but build him wondrous temples

Acceptance of any literalist religious dogma is a sad and pathetic copping out

It must be fine to explain one’s thoughts and fears with extensible make believe

How convenient it is to invoke god’s mysterious will to quiet and to rationalize

What a brilliant stroke to let god’s self-appointed representatives also govern

How hypocritical to teach that god is love while spreading hatred of the infidels

Faith based on revealed truth is moral, ethical and intellectual cowardice

May the scowling mullahs dark broodings be lost forever to the background noise

Billions of personal saviors prattle endlessly trying to hide the onrushing void

You hold up as the very devil other faiths with objectives identical to your own

You ought to be tried for fraud, negligence and crimes against humanity

All of your grand temples should be turned into useful schools and hospitals

You perversely co-opt our need of faith into a means to gain power and control

No god speaks through you and the authority you grant yourself through ‘Him’ is bogus

Your interpretations of the actions of your fantasy characters are comical at best

Omnipotent gods balancing our sins and virtues are really quite amusing concepts

There is nothing behind your pomp and smoke or your ceremony and circumstance

That different true gods set us upon each other means we have all gotten it very wrong

You immerse yourselves in the minutiae of your make-believe to hide from real issues

The multi-generational delusion is quite seamless, but only when viewed from the inside

You speak in musty dialects that we might more easily accept divine ventriloquism

You have built competing empires off human fears and insecurity of the unknown

All your writings and monuments will disappear in less than one geologic epoch

By what right do you dangle so-called truth, revealed to others as bait for your prey

Let us strip them, shave their heads and toss them all together to see they are all the same

Make them read legal disclaimers as any normal pitchman must

Have them print the dangerous side-effects and unwanted symptoms they produce

Teach the children their flaws and fallacies as well as of their value propositions

Let them have their gods strike me dead and prove that ‘He’ has done it

Teach the dangers of blind faith in politics and religion in equal measure

Force the self-appointed spokesmen into endless debates among themselves

Grant them that god exists but make them prove that he has a ‘Word’

Rate them like mutual funds, rank them by their assets and absurdity of beliefs

Combat them with comedy and satire, reason, logic and broad education

Question their authority, make plain their assumptions and criticize their dogma

I ask them merely to explain events in a way that makes any real sense today

Buying My Implanted Dreams

buy a new big truck as part of the lifestyle of a hard-nosed account manager

eat a double cheese meat lovers pizza and become like a pro football player

drink a lot of beer and attractive women will flock to have sex with you

burn dirty coal in old power plants for a more patriotic environment

take little red sugar pills, eat what you want and lose that fat while you sleep

invest your money with slick, friendly strangers and they will ensure your future

treat your entire family to a traditional fast food meal you picked up coming home

ask your doctor about that advertised drug and you’ll never get old and sick

make just one more electronics purchase and you will achieve technical nirvana

eat more factory beef and believe you support ruggedly-indepenent American ranchers

buy a new performance sedan and act like a character from some slick action movie

buy everything your child wants and you will demonstrate your love for them

order today before it's too late because it's just once in a lifetime

unwrap a snack anytime you just feel the need to get away

spend your money on something because someone else saw the same ad

listen to the music that sponsors want played before and after their pitches

buy a new gas guzzling jeep or you don't really care if you’re rugged & your family is safe

listen to their music and join the community, where nobody even knows you

pay off your credit card by refinancing your house then charge some more without any guilt

use what they advertise and you’ll be living just like the TV stars – in your tired modular

buy one of these or, if you really prefer, you can just remain a chump and a moocher

eat out often as corporate food prepared by dropouts will enrich your life

for real players like you, home equity is for vacations, not for saving, like some loser

"hire" a broker and he will be with your for now and forever

learn the issues well from 30 second soundbites and then go out and vote your "conscience"

buy a new car because they advertise so much that it must really be quite important

save tons of money by rolling your credit debt over to a different card with lower interest

trowel more grease, powder and paint on your face and it will keep you young

get your child a happy meal so they can bring up kids to take there, too

pick up that sugary cereal for 8 bucks a box and achieve family harmony

buy frozen meals and save precious time to spend watching even more ads in HD

purchase a computer and you will surely start learning things on internet

put on some expensive new imported clothes and start feeling better about your true self

sharing excessive quantities of the same brand of beer will cement your true friendships

smoke outside your school because they paid actors to show cigarettes in a movie

buy a 3 ton SUV for 45k and go find your freedom almost offroad in the shattered wilderness

hurry and buy a bigger new house based on real estate advertisement hyperbole

increase sexual pleasure and big pharmas bottom line by popping their pills      

ask your doctor about a drug you learned nothing about in an expensive tv ad

shop at the grocery store where pleasant music soothes you in every snack aisle

spend way too much on a boring cruise and get food poisoning while acting rich

waste time and money on golf with phonies who pretend it all makes sense

invest your thought and emotions on sports events for years but never ask if it makes any sense

get cash back and more horsepower when you buy now with nothing down

buy more than you need then throw away what’s left over, after it has spoiled

Charge off a true family adventure shoving your way thru a corrupt Disneyland fantasy

pay full retail to get this years sports gear like it would make any real difference

get an expensive new cell phone so others can hear you talking nonsense

throw 25 grand at a big macho Harley, then dump it in your driveway

swill caffeine and donuts and buy yourself a yoga class 5 times a month

go out for expensive lunches 3 days a week and call yourself a conservative

pay full price for designer clothes to advance your so-called career

lay out your credit card for the drinks and dinner, because that makes you feel like a player

watch what's on tv because ads made it seem as if many others also do

pay big bucks for private schools and believe your kid will notice a difference

give a premium for designer foods made with extra calories and artificial colorings

spend your money to save time - as if that account were building up somewhere for later

stay in 5 Star hotels and eat well when you vacation, since you work so hard you truly deserve it

‘invest’ all you can borrow on a stock tip about which you know nothing at all

never save a penny and think you can retire at 51 if you start planning at 45

Even As We Hyper-Consume

Even as we sit in our happy little homes utterly warm and comfortable

many more squat quite hopeless on hardpacked dirt floors

Even as we concentrate fully upon our surreal consumption

well over a billion live on unable to afford even the basics

Even as our own vast health care choices grow ever more costly

others need not pay for that which is not even offered

Even as some of us grow wiser about the food that we eat

some eat the wild animals that can never be replaced

Even as we struggle to manage the tattered remnants of our forests

many walk miles just to cut and carry their own daily firewood

Even as we spend ever more on our hi-tech weapon systems

Our greatest enemies cannot afford shoes for their feet

Even as we stand thoughtless in a hot and steamy shower

teenage mothers carry filthy water to their sickly children

Even as we despoil with concrete and bulldozers

others use hand axes, fire and goats to gain their own advantages

Even as we casually cast our fast food wrappers out upon the roads

millions make a crude living by combing through garbage

Even as our loving mothers shepherd children safely inside locked mini-vans

starving babies suck with empty eyes at dusty and desiccated breasts

Even as we grow bored and find no meaning in our lives

Dirty and hungry hordes consider no more than their next meal

Even as our monstrous SUVs thirstily guzzle the dregs of the oil as we drive all alone

they have no power, sewers, running water, cars or <gasp> even television

Even as we discard decent clothes merely for fashion's fickle sake

others cut their footwear from the remnants of old tires

Even as we indulge in communal botoxification

infants die in the desert with flies in their eyes

Even as we lavish thousands upon the care of our pets

children in their schools do not get even our used eyeglasses

Even as we prepare to suck the oil from our last wild places

we council the less-fortunate to leave their own rain forests intact forever

Even as we deplore their sick & irrational religious fanaticism

our cause remains righteous because the one true God is on our side

Even as we imprison them as unlawful combatants

we attack them and kill them quite against the rules we invented ourselves

Even as we constantly preach about the value of sweet freedom

they must choose to be either with us or be counted among our hated enemies

Even as the tender buds emerge in the gentle rain

the unholy diesel fumes blacken the lungs of our precious children

Even as we grow fatter, feedlot-style, on factory corporate sludge

too many others share our castoffs with the rats and the roaches

Even as we proudly disdain the need to read and to write

the ruling 1% finds it easier to pass off even more twisted & unsubstantiated half-truths

Even as world opinion grows ever stronger with regard to our actions

we grow yet more righteous and even less empathetic

Even as we prepare to spend more on the military each and every year

many children supposedly safe at home dose on mercury, lead and diesel

Even as our leaders preach of security and prosperity

their corporate cronies cut benefits and move both production & design overseas

Even as they urge pay cuts, layoffs and pension eliminations,

executives get more of everything, come profit or come loss

Even as they embrace you with false smiles and promises of a grand future

their earlier work left you out of their plans and alone on the street

Even as our blessed children loll like fattening swine upon our couches

we continue spending more money that we have not yet even earned

Even as our grasping fingers clutch at last at the marketers prize

there remain but few traces of our folly in the ash underfoot

Even as in May the young calf happily nudges his mother in the meadow

the feedlots & slaughterhouses prepare a place for him come the Fall

Even as we joyfully celebrate that Friday finally came again

we are already awaking to a depressive and smoggy Monday morning

Even as we look forward to the quiet contemplation of a dignified retirement

we actually just grow older without grace or respect and in fear

Even as the day draws to a close and the quiet shadows stir

there is still time for more noise and room to belch acrid smoke

Even as the tourist industry produces more fun every year

the things that they pimp become worn out and cannot be recycled

Even as the church bells peal out across quiet township sunsets

somewhere criminals are callously stealing pensions from trusting widows

Even as we summon up the best from within us for our greatest effort

our sociopathic so-called leaders demand young lives before they can know any better

Even as the quiet waters flow through boreal forests without end

Our mere survival smears more brown deserts around this blue-green planet

Even as honest tradesmen strive to do the good thing every day on every job

greedy salesmen cackle as they waste their fat commissions on foolish baubles

Even as we calculate the billions of light years known to the universe so far

we do not even nearly comprehend the incredible shortness of our vapid lives

Our Progress Did All This To You

When you see brutal machinery gouging up the gentle land you once knew

We did this without so much as a passing thought about you

When your ears hurt from the noise and your nose burns from the stench

We drove casually by and did this to you without the slightest pretense

When the rain does not fall and the sun is too hot and it feels too crowded

We did this and We needed no help to get it all started

When the water is dirty and grows ever scarcer

We did this with kindness and you need not fear, sir

When you cast out any others at all different from you

We did this and they, our cloned brothers, were not just a few

When you soil your nests and move on without a care

We did our duty and squatted in relief before you ever got there

When you stole from your children the life from the land

We did them a favor and steadied your greedy hand

When all you can think of is escape to mass media hypnosis

We did this for you with love that you might learn via osmosis

When you sit alone behind your car's tinted windows, swallowing the smog

We did this that you all might be ground closer in their great gears and cogs

When your children learn nothing, take everything and return only scorn

We did my best to make them just like you since the day they were born

When you work for years just to be kicked away like sick old prostitutes

We did our part to import your cheap and disposable substitutes

When you used it once and flipped it away

We smiled at your bored children going off again to play

When you swilled fast food and dreamed of the days when you were slim

We laughed as you were driving your car to the gym

When you bought your new clothes for the thrill of their bright colors

We did this so that you would not notice that your life grew ever duller

When you financed new vehicles and drove around on your phone

We helped you to think that your life was your own

When you mortgaged your future to spend more today

We fooled you into thinking you’d never have to pay

When you babbled alone to your cellphone in a crowd

We reported this as well, although not quite as loud

When you always spent more and never kept anything aside

We did this so that you would have nothing to look back on with pride

When you bought all the dreams that conglomerates were pitching

We did this counting softly, laughing, not bitching

When you smoked and you drank and you ate your rich food

We wrote songs to sell you things by shaping your attitude

When you took pride in your ignorance of the ways of your brothers

We saw why you had appointed yourselves to lead all the others

When you tried to look back and make sense of your time

We did what We could to hide these empty things from your mind

When your eyes began to fail you and you could no longer touch your toes

We did this with you but you will remain very much alone

When you thought you had mastered this life and all of its fears

We smiled as you finally tried to look deeper than into a mirror

When you planned romantic adventures for your golden years

We saw someone’s life ending in embarrassment and irrational fears

When you envisioned a time in which you grew old with grace

We smell your stale bedpans in an inhuman place

When you at last sat alone and planned a death with true dignity

We see it in millions and chuckle at the absurdity

When you finally saw these few things that others let slip

We mumbled this sadly through your barely moving lips