For All the Fools on the Hill (and in the world)

(Thought it might be a good time to dust this one off; I'm plain out of words)

A PATRIOT'S LOVE SONG © 2006
Once safe to breathe, there's no blue sky; it's sick with acid rain
Mountains have been sliced off like boils for streets with homey names

On city streets where birds once sang, we inhale poison fumes
to a constant soundtrack in our lives that cannot mask the gloom

In theaters built like playing cards stacked up against all odds
actors drunk on White House dreams lead massacres like gods

Once Washington was Camelot, now it's Valley of the Dolls
And where our Eternal Flame was lit, only darkness falls

Politicians swear, with hand to God, to keep us free and strong
then drown us in false promises that placate us along

our journey to the future here in demographics land
where freedom is just a logo we buy at the t-shirt stands.

Oh corporate America, we bow our heads to thee
Will you sponsor every word in what's left of our libraries?

Will you decide whose thoughts are worthy of song or printed page?
who's the 'target audience' and whose ideas you'll wage?

America, land of the free, is it really thee, whose red
is blood that's spilled by kids in schools; on bombed out streets?

Whose blue's the bruised integrity of cherished freedom's heart
and whose only stars are the stars that shine on our TVs after dark?

America the beautiful, can things be what they seem?
Filled with dread, asleep, awake, we fear we've lost our dreams

We've stripped the stars off of our flag, it burns in effigy,
now the only stars are the stars that shine every night on our TV's

America the beautiful, is it really thee whose
only stars are the stars that shine every night on our TV's?

© 2006
Mariah Fleming