Conquered

Living here in survival mode
We are too small to succeed
Self-anointed in babies blood
Goddesses don't think they bleed
Embezzle all the children's futures
Eternity thrift store fire sales
Auctioned bargain basement style
To banks too big to fail

In inflated discount cages
Growing smaller year by year
We are shrinking with the psyche
Grow tamer with each passing fear
Make us build our own bounce house
Suggest we better stay inside
Churches all are gas chambers
There is no place to hide

Exterminate the vermin
Conquer all the plagues
Dictate terms so clearly
In languages so vague

Speak nothingness into existence
Voids meaningless go nowhere
So why you drive so crazy
In such a hurry to get there?
You say a man can't walk on water
Chemicals fulfill his every wish
As if man is just a science project
And Planet Earth a Petri dish

Scientists assume control
Hitmen with dispassionate lab carts
Write doctrinal dissertations
English with a stake in Latin's heart
Needle-certified technicians do
What they can do to change our blood
Teach paper shoes to walk on air
Wholly men turn water into mud

Exterminate the vermin
Conquer all the plagues
Dictate terms so clearly
In languages so vague

We must always trust our leaders
Even when they make mistakes
Don't bother bending any rules
They ain't never gonna break
And all the rules unbreakable
Are breaking all of us
Power corrupts the corruptible
The corruptible corrupt us

And ride off into the sunset
Happily-never-after wins
A brighter future lies ahead
Just right up there around the bend
But the future lies right through its teeth
Some of us are jumping bail
Eternity's been ransomed
By the God too big to fail

Exterminate the vermin
Conquer all the plagues
Dictate terms so clearly
In languages so vague

 © John Kennan 10-7-20