LISTEN

Abstention Proclamation
Gabriel Duncan

I'm holding a conference
To discuss the meaning of love
And how to make the gods among us
Like the ones above
I'd like to discuss
Just why we're so disgusting
Why we can't marry
And just why the word equality is rusty
 
Why do we all
Think it's been decided
We can have more than everyone else
Why we are still divided
Why these bigots
Keep pouring hatred like spigots
And why wise words are whoring
On street corners, on pickets
 
I want to know
Why we can't get along
Why we're maintaining
Centuries of wrong
And why hours at Longs and K-Mart
Just can't pay the bills
Why we're getting killed for oil
Because our leaders can't even the till
 
Explain to me
This idea of economy
I demand you supply us
Without arguing legality
I demand that you wed us
Without our fight for equality
What are you afraid of
What's this rationalized duality
 
I want my Valentine's Day
The way that it was
I want my tradition
Not money for blood
I want to share all the food that grow
And I want all the gold that you stole
I remuneration for those deluding promises you sold
I want your company
No, I want your state
Fuck it, I want my nation
I want to conjugate
 
Let have my recrimination
You're the ones at fault
You're the desecration
Of the abdication
By aggression
In a long succession
Who know this isn't a creation
To exalt
 
How many lives did Asbestos take
And how many people does Paxil satiate
How many bodies were unearthed to build the interstates
How much is it worth
For you to convince the media to forget your mistakes
 
Why did this turn into an enormous conflict
Is it just me, is it something that I missed
Why are the minorities' entrance policies so strict
We are we turned away from ourselves
On account of our differences
Frankly, I feel a little tricked
How did you think you could get away
With omitting fats, femmes and chicks
 
What makes you think you can have your own day
So you can turn around and shoo your supporters away
Fuck, even Martin Luther King Jr. had a best friend who was gay
 
So what makes you think
We're not all the same
That our gods are extinct
That we need baptismal names
I think this is succinct:
If you can't make the rules
You're trapped in this game
And if you won't make the rules
I wonder if you know that you're to blame
That you're just the fool on the hill
Running around, batting the flames
That's it your honors
I abstain