Anarchy in the U.S.A.

ANARCHY
is no longer a dream
of barbaric sex-pistol punks
or eccentric ex-intellectuals
bearing guns, bombs, and leaflets

Actually, it's so real in the U.S.A.
it's become 'passe' :
savvy rebels talk about humanism, Confucius
or this or that civilized way

Police and crimminals,
capitalists and "liberals,"
soft "authorities" and lofty radicals:
all snarl and claw at each other
and prey on the man on the subway
and the man in the street

A new religion has emerged silently:
it's called absolute "DEMOCRACY"
a panacea for humanity
righting all wrongs
and putting everything straight,
except when it wrongs rights
and leads to endless debate,
incompetence and hate

Countless people slipping through the cracks
living by the train tracks,
paying their TV church dues
and sleeping in their lice-infested shoes,

ignored by the literati and politicos
who can be found in posh coffeehouses
sloshing frapuccinos in thrice-recycled paper cups
discussing artistic ethos and technique,
whether it's quite ethical
to axe that Lorax in Mozambique,
whether re-election Mr. MouthPiece should seek
(rumor has it he got
some stripper on his beak)

And "middle America" doesn't see it all
because they live in bubble suburbias,
eat too much, drink bourbon excessively
and read books about spirituality
how to live effectively,
how to be both rich and free

how to do anything but see
how they're mired in arrogant mediocrity
and velvet anarchy