⋮

Joe McPhee
Song for Beggars (1999)

This song won’t feed the starving,
nor will conferences on hunger
with a fortune spent on TALKING.
Nor will it house the homeless
or quench the thirst of millions
who will die from lack of water,
while the Vampires drink THEIR blood.

This song won’t stop our fighting
over bullshit and the infinite,
nor keep us all from freezing
when the sun burns through the sky.
Nor will it save our asses
from a fate too cruel to mention,
when, from our greed and madness,
we have sucked the planet dry.

But,
the weak the Earth inherits,
and the sick and disillusioned,
and the wounded and the shattered,
and the hopeless without vision,
and the lost without direction,
helpless, lonely, and the sad!

They will kill the clean young soldiers,
douse the spark of bright tomorrows,
end forever dreams of glory,
lay to rest the brutal lies.
They will satiate their hunger on the body of the tourists.
They will satisfy their thirsting on the liquor of their lives.

NO MORE LEADERS!
NO MORE IDOLS!
ONLY BEGGARS!
music, verse