Indoctrination??

Preconceptions fed
Closed minds
Chorused voices
Dog-whistle opinions
With back biting considered

Countered facts
Spreadsheet empathy
Cold ideology
Band-wagon mentality
And repression with impunity

Fragile unity
False Exceptions
Carnival of ignorance
Alongside
Headline ignominy

Wasted efforts
Deep ingrained lies
Social regression
And
Tissues of lies

Group hypnotherapy
Cultured insanity
Plastic hypocrisy
With
Corrupted heredity

Controlled hysteria
oxy-moron(ia)
Faked emotional
Leading to..
Future dystopia

Mark Catlin
May 2016

 

 

Our God’s Are Falling Down

What Cannot Show

Past things that shape me from inside
From boy to man pain magnified
From being bullied to a lover’s lies
The scars that settle deep inside
From a friends betrayal
Or my feelings brushed aside
Part of me has somehow died
Replaced with darkness I’m lost inside
The anger I feel pulsing behind my eyes
Like rising burning poison bile
Flooding over my emotions it then nullifies
Are these symptoms of my going insane?
Or just a fracture through which leaks my pain
From a battle waged within my soul
The emptiness shall not let go

Things out of the past
That shape me from inside
From childhood to man
Pain I try, in vain, to hide
My cries for help
Ignored or vilified
Every trust I extend-betrayed
Loss turns to burning rage inside
I can feel it hiding behind my eyes
Like rising, burning, poison bile
Flooding my emotions to nullify
Just more symptoms of my going insane?
Or just a fracture through which
Leaks my pain
Try to hide-it
Keep it locked-inside
The emptiness which
Invades my mind.

Mark Catlin—2012

Soup Is Good Food

Soup is Good Food
We’re sorry
But you’re no longer needed
Or wanted
Or even cared about here
Machines can do a better job than you
This is what you get for asking questions
The unions agree
‘Sacrifices must be made’
Computers never go on strike
To save the working man you’ve got to put him out to pasture
Looks like we’ll have to let you go
Doesn’t it feel fulfilling to know
That you-the human being-are now obsolete
And there’s nothing in hell we’ll let you do about it

Soup is good food-
(We don’t need you any more)
You made a good meal-
(We don’t need you any more)
Now how do you feel-
(We don’t need you any more)
To be shit out our ass
And thrown in the cold like a piece of trash

We’re sorry
You’ll just have to leave
Unemployment runs out after just six weeks
How does it feel to be a budget cut?
You’re snipped
You no longer exist
Your number’s been purged from our central computer
So we can rig the facts
And sweep you under the rug
See our chart?
Unemployment’s going down
If our figures are wrong that’s your problem

Soup is good food……..

We’re sorry
We hate to interrupt
But it’s against the law to jump off this bridge
You’ll just have to kill yourself somewhere else
A tourist might see you
And we wouldn’t want that
I’m just doing my job, you know
So say uncle
And we’ll take you to the mental health zoo
Force feed you mind-melting chemicals
Till even the outside world looks great
In hi-tech science research labs
It costs too much to bury all the dead
The mutilated disease-injected
Surplus rats who can’t be used anymore
So they’re dumped (with no minister present)
In a spiraling corkscrew dispose-all unit
Ground into sludge and flushed away
Aw geez…

We don’t need you any more
We don’t need you any more
Soup is good food
You made a good meal
Now how do you feel
To be shit out our ass
And thrown in the cold like a piece of trash
We know how much you’d like to die
We joke about it on our coffee breaks
But we’re paid to force you to have a nice day
In the wonderful world we made just for you

“Poor Rats”, we human rodents chuckle
At least we get a dignified cremation
At yet
At 6:00 tomorrow morning
It’s time to get up and go to work

Lyrics: Jello Biafra
Music: Dead Kennedys

Clarity Erosion

Close your eyes
Shut it out
Nevermind
It’s over for now

Feelings crowd in
Your mind it freezes
Thinking slows
Never easy

Whatever next
Emotions expressed
Can’t repress
Interpret the rest

Inner mind
Deep inside
Try to find
A clear sign

Thoughts explode
Time erodes
The past exposed
To all who know.

Mark Catlin
April 2016

New Boy

New Boy

In the lounge of class distinction
Rank and number neatly scrawled
In the luxury of income
Sat the new boy feeling cold

Sat there thinking….
“Where’s the toilet?”
Dropped his cigarettes and coughed….
Waiting for a chance to pick them up……
That’s when the lights went off

Sat there thinking it was funny
Fears subsiding with the lighting
“Turn the lights on” someone shouted
Found himself alone and smiling

Shattered by his own deception
He looked round for helpful clues
Men in suits and glaring glasses
Calmly watched him look confused

Carpet silence stifled whispers
When did something mean so much?
Just the emptiness of silence
Just the feelings, not the touch

Nervous words of introduction
To the instant silent stares
Felt as if he wasn’t wanted
And finally he wasn’t there

Then he wished that he was back
To somehow make the silence crack
Concluded, like we all have done
Some people make you feel no-one

Lyrics: Dick Lucas
Music: Subhumans (UK)
From the album;
29:29 Split Vision

Only A Phase

“I’d rather stay a child and keep my self-respect, if being an adult means turning out like that guy-ugh!”(Jello Biafra)

Only a Phase

Are you growing up
Or giving up
You might be older
But that’s not enough
Does your age regulate
What’s right or wrong
You can’t relate
Maybe all along

Have you grown up
Or given up
It really doesn’t matter…
‘Cause you don’t give a fuck
You haven’t lost your convictions
There were never any there
Now you’re part of the problem
And you don’t care

When you were younger
You spoke a little too loud
You talked about things
You knew nothing about
Now it’s all come home
And you’ve lost your spine
There are no facts
When you’re living a lie

You’re forty-five
You’re already dead
You never believed
A word that you said
You reminisce about the good old days
And tell yourself
It was only a phase

By denying the facts
You’re denying the truth
Self respect
A luxury of youth
Believe what you want
And try not to hate
What you don’t understand
And the time that you waste

So close your eyes
And then go to sleep
And try to forget
What you didn’t keep
And tell yourself
That apathy pays
And that the truth
Was only a phase

#lyrics
#GreatMusic -(Spermbirds)

Our God’s Are Falling Down

Struggle

Understanding the meaning of struggle
Giving your whole life to a single passion
Which others may or may not
Consider obsolete
Like a rare flower
Seen by a few before it withers and dies
(before it withers and dies)

Seeing it all
All the way through the very end
Regardless
A full stop followed by an exclamation mark
Written in your flesh and blood
Getting knocked down every time
Getting knocked down every moment you get up – until you love getting up

I know what you’ve been going through
I’ve been there too
God knows I’ve been pushing hard Pushing so damn hard -I’ve forgotten what the hell I’m even -Pushing for

Recognize it when it happens to you
Learn to recognize it and know what to do
Stop clinging on, let go, own nothing
Do it out of love
Do it out of love

Words cannot substitute
Losing everything
Losing your home
Losing your money
Your dignity
Losing your mind – your beliefs, ideals
Then and only then
When everything is gone
You no longer care
Your soul standing naked and bare
Stripped down to the truth
Then you’ll find everything
On heaven and earth
On heaven and earth
On heaven and earth

The struggle is long
The struggle is hard
The struggle is beautiful

Lyrics; J. Coleman
From the album; Extremities, Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions. By Killing Joke.

Witch Hunt

“Witch Hunt”
The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick and still
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torch lit hill

Features distorted in the flickering light
The faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right
Confident their ways are best
The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill

They say there are strangers who threaten us
Are immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand…

Lyrics –Neil Peart
Original Music– Rush
Best cover version (IMO)–Machine Head