I'm Afraid That I'm Me

the world is sick and all of us in it

so fight the cancer

fight the cancer

don't bow your head to it

the world is sick but it won't die from it

so fight the cancer

fight the cancer

don't bow your head to it

i'm afraid that i am me

and i had no say in this

i dare to be self-aware when ignorance is bliss

i never do the things i want

i do what i don't want to

i'm fortified for treachery and hopelessly untrue

remember when we were all small?

with stained-glass windows stretched up the walls

we listened to words we could not understand

as they echoed through the church halls

they stacked us up conveniently

and fed us from their tables

they deduced what we should know

because we weren't able

and as we grow we feel we know

the truth of where we've been

satiated by their oaths

dragged on the heels of holy men

lately i have found frustration among the incongruence

a movement of peasants and pacifists drowning in patriotic affluence

i feel as though i should do something but i'm staggered by the ramifications

they've baptized the empire into the church and heralded its sanctification

sometimes i feel as though i'm taking place outside of myself

but i'm afraid that i am me

i am me

i'm me

i'm me

"blessed are the meek" succumbs to "might makes right"

"turn the other cheek" succumbs to pre-emptive strike

"love your enemies" is fossilized beneath the frozen tundra

and "blessed are the poor in spirit" is devoured by "God bless America"

you file the children into the classrooms, make them stand and say an oath

and when we ask "should i love God or my country?"

you smile and tell us "both."

we've hidden the God we claim we serve and driven him beneath the floorboards

but i can still hear this still, small voice