CENSUS (J Neo Marvin)
I’ve seen the best minds of my generation
Scrap their hopes and lower their expectations
Split up into petty warring factions
Embrace depression and line up for their rations
A plundered world and a mortgaged future
A hard boiled dystopian adventure
Flotsam and jetsam sold down the river
Human wreckage in the great western sewer
I want to see the mighty fall
Fall so far and fall so hard
And when they finally land
I want it to hurt real bad
I’ve seen the best minds of my generation
Write off years of their lives and their late inspirations
Throw it all in the trash, both the real and the fake
And make like the whole thing was a silly mistake.
I’ve seen the best minds of my generation
Lounging on the laurels of their glorious youth
No one could ever be as cool as they were then
They did it all, they did it better, there’s nothing left for you.
I’ve seen the best minds of my generation
Lose their dreams and forget the things that matter
Get sidetracked by the usual temptations
Sell their souls and watch their own wills shatter
I’ve seen the best minds of my generation
Slip and fall and get crushed by despair
Bounce back and forth between denial and panic
Don’t know where to go, so they go nowhere.
I want to see the mighty fall
Fall so far and fall so hard
And when they finally land
I want it to hurt real bad.
And our small lives come and our small lives go
We’re little more than insects to the important people
The overfed apes cavorting on the big stage
Spewing sanctimonious lines about good and evil
And they make their big mess and gallop off into the sunset
While middle management hands out the brooms and mops
And the prisoners work off their long probation
The show goes on and the show must stop.
© 1992 Undulant Rhetoric (BMI)