Data Mining
They've mined coal from the earth, and oil,tin,
nickel, copper, gold and silver too.
Now those big computer folks, and the not-so-big ones
are data mining-not minerals, but me and you.
They know your name, address, number, political views and occupation.
They know your opinions on most major problems
that are currently confronting our nation.
They know how many kids you have and how much you're in debt,
all the weird hobbies you're “into,”
and whether the house has been paid off yet.
I'm cutting this poem short because there are some facts I really need.
You see, I have a urinary infection and my doctor called,
so I have to go online now to find out
how many times today I've peed.
Big Pharma
I'm Big Pharma and I made a new pill for you,
and if you buy it and use it and have a reaction, this is what it could do:
it could make you feel dizzy, unstable, or queasy, and make your vision blurry.
It could increase your appetite, make you throw up,
make your mouth water and your tongue furry.
It can cause pains in your stomach, and organ failure too; your skin will be dry,
there'll be pus in your eye, there's a fair chance you'll die,
and that's not all it can do.
You won't just get medicated; you'll be irritated, agitated, ruminated,
resonated, syncopated, undulated, fabricated and lubricated.
I'm Big Pharma, so if these side effects happen, you can't sue me
because I told you all about it, and you took it anyway.
It's your fault, you see.
If these things don't happen, and it all works out right,
this new magical pill will cure your ills,
(you’ll even sleep through the night)
after you pay a bunch of money to me.
The Government Wants My Bucks
The government wants my bucks!
It seems to me that they have plenty,
while old folks like me ain't got any.
“It's an entitlement,” they say.
“We gave it to you. Now, we'll take it away.”
The government wants my bucks!
You work forty or fifty years,
and the savings just walks away and disappears.
As we get older, we get sicker,
and the health care maze gets deeper and thicker.
The government wants my bucks!
We can no longer pay tomorrow for what we need today.
No matter what the season,
for any old reason,
I'm old and can't afford to pay.
The government wants my bucks!
I'm not needy,
but the government is SO greedy.
Bills? I have many.
Funds? I don't have any.
The Government wants my bucks!
No matter what I say, think or do.
Take notice, people, I'm talking to you!
I've reached the point where most everything SUCKS
cause the Government wants MY BUCKS!
Spellin'
Peeple don't spell good any more
and they're grammy ain't to good two
The soshal media sites look like
ill litterates took over,
and theirs nothin' more we can dew.
The rest of us is nice to icknore it;
we don't say, “Hay, you spelt that rong,”
or “Hay, your grammy is bad.”
We just portend to no what there sayin'
and we “likes” it like we unnerstand,
when, ackually, this icknorance all around us
makes us feel kinda sad.
Violence
Is the world really as violent as it seems today,
or is a stimulus promoting the violence
and pushing it our way?
Is there something which causes violence that is small enough
to be unseen, yet large enough to click a trigger
within those who are unstable,
to commit an act that no one saw coming?
Like a terrified felon running from the law
but standing on a tenth floor ledge...
what tiny thing happened to make him do
whatever he did? What put him over the edge?
What about all those medicines
that advertise on t-v and warn they could
cause you to harm yourself?
Could they also cause you to go quite crazy and
want to harm someone else?
What is different in the here and now
than it was in grandpa's day? Opioids? PTSD
Electronic devices? With the violence we have,
it's not an accident that it's happening this way.
“Violence breeds violence” may be true,
but if our society seems to have somehow
grown immune to violence, well
that fact should matter too.
Video games have changed a lot since when I used to play;
I shot at ghosts or fired into space.
I wasn't hitting what looked like real people
who were bleeding what looked like real blood
all over the place.
Is the violence worse in the USA than it is
in Australia, Austria, Cuba or Guinea?
Is it worse among rich, middle-class or poor?
Is it worse among those with a good education
or those who don't have any?
We must ask these questions and lots more
if we want to understand this epidemic of violence
which seems to encompass our country
from north to south, from shore to shore.