Homeless person begging
For a buck on bended knee
Advertisers pandering
For bigger bucks from me
Which is worse
In my mind?
Or are they of
The same kind?
One asks for pity
But puts up barely a fuss
The other tries it all
To win my lasting trust
One forces weathered hand
Toward avoiding face
The other crams it down my throat
To make sure I get a taste
Beggars beg to pass the time
Floundering at rock bottom
In society’s eyes they amount
To nothing more than rotten
Begging businesses hide behind
The mask of free enterprise
And disguise their begging pleas
In hyperbole and lies
Vagrants are rounded up
And shoved into a corner
Corporate America targets
And demonizes the former
In places I can easily avoid
Beggars hang out…here and there
Not so the other beggars
For they are everywhere
Billboards, TV, radio and Web
At the movie theatre and video store
Hell, they even got stinkin’ ads
Right on the supermarket floor!
I’m Steve Wynn
And this is my new hotel
Coke is it, just do it
It’s better at the Bell
Plop plop fizz fizz
The proud, the few
I’m Tom Bodell
And we’ll leave the light on for you
Seventy zillion served
The ultimate driving machine
Viagra’s gonna help you
Get it on with Mr. Clean
Can you hear me now? Good.
Chicken of the sea
The king of…ahhh, crap!
Give it a rest, please
I could go on forever
With slogans in my head
Now that Madison Avenue
Has replaced life with ads instead
But ‘brother can you spare a dime’
From vagabond or bum
Is a tagline of another sort
One heard quite seldom
It bothers me hardly at all
Pervades my life far less
Of both the beggars I’m crystal clear
Which one of them is best
The homeless man can have his place
In this lucky life I lead
But take away the di-ad-rhea
And give me the balance I need
Yes, give me homeless, give me stench
Leave me penniless and alone
But take away the corporate filth
Trashing every American home
I dream of a day to come
When millionaire moguls across the land
House the homeless, feed the hungry
And put a dime in that weathered hand
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2 comments:
It's a good point, but I think you carry on too much. Three or four verses could say it better. And trying to maintain rhyme and beat have weakened most of the verses.
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Does anyone really wonder if beggars are worse than advertisers? Jesus.
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