Working For Wal Mart Nation

Where are you sleeping tonight?

Working for Wal Mart Nation
    Trying to scrape on by
  Trapped in a lowly station
    Barely able to survive

 Was a time I had ambitions
    I had my wild dreams
But all of that's all over now
 They were all pipe dreams

   Looking for an America
  Where everybody wins
 No one gets plowed under
  Where anyone can begin

  A government of the dollar
   What we have become
Elected corporate politicians
   Who represent no one

  Suspending Habeas Corpus
     Forcing us into debt
Foreclosing on our mortgages
    Leaving us no assets

 Raping the banking system
    Without an oversight 
   Rigging the regulations
Then scream about gun rights

We're an arsenal for democracy
   Weapons factory systems
Billions made in weapons trade
 So screw the latest victims

 It's just the price of business
  Our expendable little lives
In a world of losers and takers
  The heartless will survive

Working for Wal Mart nation
   I'm nothing but a wheel
Trapped by trade deregulation
  They said would be ideal

Armed by the second Amendment
      Bushmaster in my hand
  Gonna make my own statement
and take back the promised land

Author's Note

Praise and criticism would be much appreciated

Reviews

[quinfinn]

excellent rant...makes me madder than hell, what this country does in the name of democracy, and as for the little people...let them starve and live on the streets while we vote ourselves another pay raise to supplement our millionaire existence with full health benefits to the grave. this country needs a f*****g enema, and we need to start with the very rich....and the corrupt political system. love it when you get me fired up, ricochet!

[Baby Ricochet]

I feel you bro. Thank you quinfinn

[jkhatz]

I had to read this for one, my elderly father has actually been forced to work at the one place that'll hire you, Wal-Mart. He's treated horribly, the pay puts you into poverty and the hours are despicable. Sadly, because the economy failed us all, his retirement crapped out and it's what he's forced to do.

On my own homefront, the economy tanked elsewhere in the world, where my husband had many contracts for many different stages. All at once, everyone backed out. In Germany and Austria, the opera houses are funded by the state, once the well dried up, the guest singers could no longer be afforded and everything in our lives fell to pieces. Thankfully, it's beginning to recover and work is steady but the toll of those years cannot be measured. We've basically had to start from scratch and we're nowhere near comfortable.

Anyway, this piece is biting and depressing but written with provocative thought and comes from a place all but the 1% can understand. Maybe, if we all decide to pull all our money from our bank accounts on the same day, all at once, they'll finally get the damn message.

Completely unrelated, however it is, just wanted to say thanks for everything. I'm happy to finally read your stuff as a friend and not an enemy. :D

[Baby Ricochet]

Jeez, your poor dad. Works all his life then it's taken away. We younger folks of working age can at least take a shot at climbing out of the hole, deep and steep though it is. Thank you for the review jkhatz and thank you for your kind words. I duly appreciate it.

[Souladareatease]

Lol praise indeed!!! Great minds they say...
the sad days of the land You pen with accuracy, a most wonderful scourge penned!!!

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Soul

[Frieda P]

I don't know what I was expecting from the title but not this, was expecting more of satire I think, not the great social commentary in this political bashing piece of yours. 'Screw the latest victims' so right, good one Mark, you do this kind of rant poetry the best.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Frieda.

[Will]

I love your political pieces, BR, they always get me going. The power put behind this is stupendous, and the subtle rhymes flow very naturally. This was inarguably my favorite stanza:

" Raping the banking system
Without an over site
Rigging the regulations
Then scream about gun rights"

Just a few spelling catches: change "over site" to "oversight" and "bake" to "back." A great piece, taking a stand against the superficiality and über-capitalism that has blinded our great nation. Job well done.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you will. I'm on it.

[RachelReaper]

Am i the first to review? I feel special! Great poem, I really liked it, the only thing I would change is at the end you put "bake" and it should be "back". Great job with this Ricochet.

[Baby Ricochet]

Goddamn Typos. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll fix it.

[RachelReaper]

:D