Singing the songs of my country,
Singing the songs of my land,
Serenading broken countrymen
Writing their dreams in the sand.

Telling the stories of our history,
All the lessons we should have learned:
The path that says it leads to greatness
Ends with human bodies being burned.

If you tell it often enough
Every lie can seem to be true,
The bigger the lie the better, it seems.
The great crowds won’t have a clue.

Trained to reject the evidence of your eyes,
You’ll see what they tell you to see,
Think what they tell you to think.
All the time believing you are free

This is how democracy ends:
With thunderous applause.
Sew the seeds of dissident rebellion,
Give voice to a sacred cause.

1/31/17