animals

I tried to talk to the stars
and all I got was clouds.
I put on my best
inside and out.
I pretended the worst
so I could feel better.
I tried everything
to move the lever.
How good the upside
when you want to feel down.
How can good livin' be easy
when everyone is somewhere else?
That joy tax
no matter color, status or religion
the sides are always slippin'.
To be a lion, a wolf or a bear.
All animals,
we're better off fair.
Yet we never come
above.
Because the distance
is too great for safe;
the feat too far to eat;
the truth too lonely to keep.
So, it goes
iron toes and the get go.
Between the slight and the might,
the spool and the keep,
the grasp and the reach,
to covet a secret
that, I, we, too small
to see.
Monkey, monkey do.
The smoke sees through
how beautiful the might
of the sky can reach
even though I never
asked for relief.
Rumble, rumble it goes.
And to what worth?
Cause we're in it together,
for all the dollars and sense,
for all those
smart enough to see it:
Beyond the trees
and shelves
and racks
and cracks
and glass bottom
slot machines
every aching version
of you and me
can be sold and
echoes into
a tiny globe
where we no longer exist
except for profit.