Fuel ~ Ani DiFranco

they were digging a new foundation in manhattan
and they discovered a slave cemetery there
may their souls rest easy now that lynching is frowned upon
and we've moved on to the electric chair.

and i wonder who's gonna be president
tweedle dumb or tweedle dumber?
and who's gonna have the big
blockbuster box office
this summer.
how 'bout we put up a wall
between the houses and the highway
and then you can go your way
and i can go my way.

except all the radios agree with all the tv's
and the magazines agree with all the radios
and i keep hearing that same damn song
everywhere i go!
maybe i should put a bucket over my head
and a marshmallow in each ear
and stumble around for another dumb numb week
for another hum drum hit song to appear.

people used to make records
as in a record of an event
the event of people
playing music in a room
now everything is cross-marketing
it's about sunglasses and shoes
or guns or drugs
you choose

we got it re-hashed
we got it half-assed
we're digging up all the graves
and we're spitting on the past
and we can choose between the colors
of the lipstick on the whores
because we know the font of twenty percent more
and the font of teriyaki.
you tell me
how does it make you feel?
you tell me what's real.

they say that alcoholics are always alcoholics
even when they're as dry as my lips for years
even when they're stranded on a small desert island
with no place in two thousand miles to buy beer
and i wonder, is he different?
is he different
has he changed
what he's about
or is he just a liar
with nothing to lie about.

am i headed for the same brick wall
is there anything i can do
about anything at all?
except go back to that corner in manhattan
and dig deeper
dig deeper this time
down beneath the impossible pain of our history
beneath the unknown bones
beneath the bedrock of the mystery
beneath the sewage system and the path train
beneath the cobblestones and the water main
beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals
beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels
beneath everything i can think of to think about
beneath it all
beneath all get out
beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel
there's a fire that's just waiting for fuel (repeat)

__________________
Put me on wheels and I'll turn tricks.

Clever? Nah, I ran out of that years ago. But if you find this, let me know, k?
"The road goes ever on..." ~ Tolkien

In memory of my friend skip...
Go then, there are other worlds than these