FOURTH OF JULY POEM
A. D. Winans
stepped on, pissed on, cheated
and abused. Taken advantage
of blue collar man caught up
in the American scam.
don’t tell me anyone can be
anything they want to be
if they put their mind to it
bullshit crap laid on like butter
on the working class stiff.
save your message for the
deaf, dumb and blind
it’ll never sell in the ghetto
or to the immigrants
you have turned your back on.
high-fiving, jiving court jester
with an act old as death
out of step, reeking from bad breath
take you message to the church
tell it to the men on death row
tell it to the starving poor
tell it to the sick and lame
tell it to the rich men
tell it to the politicians
tell it to the serial killers
tell it to wall street
tell it to the man on the gallows
tell it to the innocent killing terrorists
tell it to the last man at the Alamo
tell it to the chiseled faces on
Mount Rushmore
tell it to Madonna
tell it to the whore
tell it to the last wino
on the bowery
tell it to the banker
tell it to the butcher
tell it to the unemployed
tell it to the circus clown
tell it to the insane
tell it to the outlaw
tell it to the in-laws
tell it to the panhandler
tell it to the con man
tell it to the dead baby stuffed
in a garbage can
tell it to the displaced factory worker
tell it to the elderly
tell it to the re-po man
tell it to the academics
tell it to the last space alien
hiding out in Roswell
tell it to the FBI sharpshooters
at Ruby Ridge
tell it to the arsonists
at Waco
tell it to the junkie with dry heaves
tell it to the farm worker
tell it to the dishwasher
tell it to the orderlies
tell it to the flag waver
tell it to the Chinese peasants
working the rice fields
for a dollar a day
tell it to the garment worker
slaving away in sweat shops
in Chinatown and the Latin quarter
tell it to the garbage man
tell it to corporate America selling
torture devises to enslaved nations
tell it to big business
tell it to the illegitimate President
willing to poison the environment
for big money interests
tell it to the oil barons
tell it to the tobacco merchants
with blood stained hands
tell it to the molested children
tell it to the battered wives of America
tell it to the pharmacy industry
dispensing billions of dollars
of drugs each year
tell it to the millions of people dying
from pollution in Mexico and abroad
tell it to the man on his death bed
not sure why he lived
or what he is dying for
tell it to Jesus Christ
shout it to the stars
line the traitors up against the wall
rewrite the ten commandments
and start all over again
