Modern Tribal Wisdom

We drew scenes from our trances on cave walls and signed them with our handprints

We worship the flickering images all produced to relieve of us of our money & reason

We thanked the creator and the animals for their sacrifices on our behalf

We build factory slaughterhouses and raise our meat without any mercy or grace

We tried to orient ourselves in our small part of this vast cosmos

Our current set of one true gods set us apart from the earth and all its creatures

We painted ourselves with ochre in patterns derived from mother nature

We encase ourselves within steel and plastic SUV cocoons while spewing toxins

We lived in caves with our dogs and guarded the fire with our lives

We are caught in their artificial cycle of electronically-induced consumption

We were small in number, often moving on, and the land restored itself behind us

We remain trapped in our own wastes by the millions in squalid, unplanned cities

We carved the salmon on the cedar and tried to find our own spirit creature

Our holidays have been disinfected by religion and co-opted by marketeers

Many of us died hunting the wooly mammoth and the giant cave bear

Injured former would-be athletes lay broken on soft couches, loudly gaining weight

We clashed with other tribes and mated with their women

We kill to demonstrate the moral superiority of our own loving & merciful god

We knew the cycles of the moon and the march of the seasons

Many among us never notice the weather until we’re forced to walk to our cars in the rain

In our potlatches we strived for status by giving away as much as we could

We pass by the homeless every day with our windows up and damn their lazy poverty

We carved totem poles that told the spirit stories of our clans

They make millions on our co-opted allegiance to empty corporate sports franchises

We solemnly left mother in the snow when she could walk no more

Grandma is drugged & abused by a variety of misfits in her warehouse nursing home

Each of us knew the history and all the legends of our ancestors and tribe

We dismiss that which happened over ten years ago as irrelevant & stupid ancient history

Our innate wastefulness was safely diluted by the fact of our small numbers

Now, we can despoil even the vast oceans and upset the very climate of the earth

We cataloged the plants for food, medicine and healing for a hundred thousand years

We pick cans off shelves by their pictures since we can’t quite read their labels

Life was hard and we knew by example that we must all die quite young

We spend billions trying hopelessly to restore a youth we wasted so long ago

We cuddled up and dreamed away the long Ice Age nights in communal shelters

We are chronically tired from working by our unwavering mechanical clocks

  

Our individual survival depended upon the success of our little group

Men sit drinking all alone in cheap, tiny rooms beneath dingy naked light bulbs

Specialized knowledge was accumulated and passed down in our arts and crafts

Disposable workers are worked long hours at degrading, low-paid tasks to profit others

Everything we tossed aside was native to the landscape, in any case

We spread our exotic toxins in far greater volumes than the earth can absorb

Leadership was recognized but assumed with humility and respect

Today’s managers scale the corporate ladder by ass kissing, sucking up and kicking down

The deformed, weak, sick and crippled quickly re-entered the spirit realm

We nurture the handicapped and rush to transform the human world in their image

We named the brilliant constellations and had stories about them all

Our lights have hidden the stars and our creation myth is old and stale

Our sturdy clothing came from things that we hunted, gathered and traded

Today we wear the identical products of massive mindless far-off wage slavery

As we wandered we often grew wet, cold, tired and very dirty

A few of us enjoy unlimited hot showers but so many lack clean drinking water & toilets

Our shamans were judged by the accuracy of their wisdom and knowledge

Advertising-controlled corporate media tells smarmy spin doctors exactly what to preach

We feasted on the sweetness of wild fruits and berries in their times

We gorge daily on sugar, salt and chemical flavorings fried up in fatty industrial oils

We forded at known safe places only when the water was not too high

We’ve channelized and sucked the diverted rivers dry after removing their sheltering trees

Everyone knew the stories of each and every member of our band

We live in a sea of strangers that tosses restlessly 24x7 just outside our locked doors

The legends we passed on required the imagination and memory of the listeners

Our entertainment is mindless, violent, sexual and created just to sell us things

The smart and the strong led the hunt and made the kills

Our generals plot from boardroom safety far away from the front lines

We marked the turning of the seasons with rites unique to our sacred places

Now time passes to the rhythm of artificial corporate retail holiday hype

We had no concept of owning any of the sacred lands we walked

Patriotic developers chop up vast parcels of that heritage to sell us little pieces of implanted dreams

Each of us could detail his lineage going back many, many generations

We cannot find on maps the places where our grandparents were supposedly born

Children grew strong in lives spent outside in the untouched & pristine surroundings

We raise our offspring indoors, drugged, chemically supplemented and nurtured electronically

After All This Progress

Where will we be?

After all the tigers have nowhere left to roam or hunt

They then become a menace and can be removed without a trace of guilt

After all the rhinos have stubbornly given up their lovely ivory horns

Oriental men will have to find another way to attain their magical erections

After all the elephants must be bred only in captivity

bull sperm will be harvested mechanically and the musty creatures drugged

After all the relevant decision-making is done by god-fearing neo-cons

we can search with lights in daytime for what they left behind as worthy of conserving

After everyone has all the guns they need but little food and there are no jobs

then it's time to send out our drugged child soldiers to clean up the countryside

After all the pigs and cows and chickens are manufactured like TV sets

At least this absurd and disgusting state has left our sanctimonious morality intact

After all the old growth trees are cut and shipped off overseas

there will be no logging jobs left and no reason for tourists to visit and to spend

After all the mighty tuna have vanished from the bluest ocean depths

we can try to convince ourselves that in god’s plan there is no need to miss them

After all our cows are made safe from natural predators on federal lands

we can clone them even stupider, fatten them faster and sell them cheaper

After all the salmon are raised in filthy pens using colors chosen off of salesman paint chips

they will be better suited for packaging in modern plastics beneath the bright lights

After all the solitary orangutans have no more deep forest refuges

they must adapt to any zoo lives that we might care to give them

After all the rivers are simply grimy, stinking channels for our wastes and toxic runoff

we are surely safe from disruptive floods until the end of our time

After all the wild grizzlies run out of places they can dominate alone

we will save just their genes, for they will not tolerate lives of captivity

After all the ice melts for good and seals always surface in open water

the polar bears can sit wasting away quietly on the shore for a while

After all the trout caught come dumped straight from hatchery trucks

all the remaining so-called anglers get all the adventure that they deserve

After all the jaguars lose their territories to slashing and burning urban refugees

it's simply pointless not to drain and settle the rest of their one-time jungle

After all the mountain valleys are accessible by wheelchairs, ATVs and dirt bikes

we really should bid out themed strip malls at the end of every trail

After all the songbirds have been mysteriously gone for many years

loud mufflers may be a comfort in a new and strange and uncomfortable silence

After all the frogs stop their friendly croaking during summer evenings

we will shortly realize that we never really needed them in any case

After all the coral reefs are bleached, dynamited and poisoned quite long ago

it is simply one less pointless eco-issue over which they will still have to argue

After all the small sanctuaries fill with roads and stores and homes

at least that mindless and frenetic pace of change must finally begin to slow

After all the resources have been plundered, transported and consumed

we will hand carry our water in a wasteland we are too poor to even try and heal

After all the snow that falls is simply lousy with fire retardants and such

we can scold our little children as they try to catch the flakes upon their tongues

After all the forests become simple assets on corporate balance sheets

they will finally begin to pay their way in freedom’s scheme of things

After all the costly giant hardwoods are cut down and hauled away

it then makes a lot of sense to simply slash and burn and grade the rest

After all the land is paved over and plotted out by giant yellow caterpillars

the rains can wash our unchecked, oily residues straight into the streams

After all the quiet, unspoiled places fill with noise and smoke and litter

wackos can then search elsewhere for the peace that once filled the air

         

After all the wildlife is driven off, shot, burnt out or poisoned

the roaches, rats, mosquitoes and flies will remain behind to comfort us

After all the kids have brains full of lead and mercury and lungs full of diesel fumes

Welfare mothers need not worry that the rich have all of the advantages

After all the native plants are extinguished by rapacious invasive weeds

good old weak and thirsty, non-native bluegrass will seem like a damn fine thing

After all the factories are abandoned and their jobs sent overseas

who can still afford the cheaper imports at the new Wal*Mart right next door

After all the engineering is outsourced to geeky losers off in foreign lands

our poor children need not learn their stupid math or junky science anymore

After the only jobs are with the government and poverty is the norm

we will live as those far away had done before our jobs went over there

After all the smarter people simply give up on having children

who will pay for the schools and where will the teachers come from

After all the western highways offer corporate fast food every couple miles

we can marvel in sterile safely at the untamed beauty of the desert skies

After all the rivers carry only chemicals, grease, sewage and fertilizer for years

The times will be less contentious because no one will remember any different

After all the oil is gone and commerce comes grinding to a depressionary halt

it will then be quite pointless and far too late to lay the blame on politicians or Big Oil

After all of Africa casts off its racist, extractive, corrupt and colonial legacies

pigs will flutter off like puffy butterflies upon their newly-sprouted wings

After all our days are squandered and we haven't even had time to read our bills

we will saddle any generations yet to come with a heavy long-term debt from birth