I daresay you've heard the truth:
                those who want their way
                get their way
                                and those who get their way
                                have their faces on magazines in convenience stores.

But while 7-11 may close at eight,
                                life doesn't.
                                                (Life don't give you Slurpees, either)
                Mary-Sue from block 16 wants to be famous
                                but she can't get you to notice her,
                                                let alone the country
                                                and the patrons of the Quick-Mart.

                A brief encounter with faith won’t get you to the red carpet
                and the clerk at the checkout counter won’t get you a six-pack
                                because even though you’re old enough to blow up Afghanistan
                                                you can’t get wasted until you’re fucking 21.
                                                                            god, the system is screwed
                                                                            new cars, new noses, new houses
                                                                                how about a new attitude?

The high-school girls giggle through the lecture
                that the new law recites word-for-word -
                                Worship your god and worship your Jesus.
                                                                I’ll be in the corner
                                                                            with a coffee and the Chronicle
                                               contemplating the crisis in the country of the critics.
                                so I see you’re a caricature.
                                Your head is big enough
                                         but the artist seems to have stopped halfway through
                                                   to go to the courtroom and sketch the latest
                                                        in screwball celebrities, druggies, bourgeoisie

                Wouldn’t he be proud.
                                Never mind the struggles from sixty-odd ago
                                They just don’t teach this shit no more - remember the
                Emancipation Proclamation?
                Taxation without Representation?
                Now there's just a
                misinterpretation of the purpose of the nation
                whose people have lost all of their determination

                                And on fifth street where the homeless dwell
                                                and the cafés close at four
                                The romantics find there’s more to life
                                                than what’s behind the door.
                                The cynics dream in secrecy
                                                of a once-and-future dawn.
                                Politicians talk of issues
                                                of which all hope is gone.

In a city of the first and last days
of every person’s life
                                  it’s all that you can do to succumb to the promises.
                 for if silence is golden then sedition is diamond
                                               you’ve gone wack and you won’t
                                                                                             come
                                                                                 back
                 The bridges burn
                 The countries burn
                 The principles burn
                                                       now it's your turn