Our animal minds

 

I spent years on the railroad assembling

a great American working-class hero inside myself,

I spent enough years in college assimilating,

all the great ideas intellectuals use to keep from living on farms.

I spent enough years in the classroom teaching

the over enculturated spoiled american youth,

answering why george washington never smiled,

or if the republic is only god's house for a while,

(god being a natural born transient),

Yet only I knew that inside my mouth, 

filled with a plastic smile (rather than a wooden one),

Like washington was said to have,

my tongue completely tied up in lies, lies, lies

like many presidents yet to come,

until one day i simply walked away,

wrapped up in all my convictions, predilections, and illusions,

saying to anyone who'll listen-

god and country and the gold standard are only delusions,

the only real reasons we can't get beyond our animal minds,

or any real solutions.