what you want/ what you need*
(*quote from a Sublime song)

In the dramas played out before me, on the small flickering screen,
I search for deeper meaning in the things that I've seen,
And you teach me that affluence is regal and supreme
But me - I aint so keen on heeding a message so goddamn obscene.
I mean, I just can't concede that its so fucking great to worship greed,
And pay no heed to other people who can't even feed
their little kids.
So I don’t trust you when you show me your shiny baubles,
And beseech me forget my troubles,
to believe in rubies, sapphires, and blood-soaked diamonds from the African mines,
you really think longing for that shit's a good use of my time?
its too high a price to pay for me
to buy into your American dream.

Why do you lie to me - my sleek TV -
the screen in front of me -
it shines a light that many fail to see.
Illuminating your deceptions - and the truth:
You need me, my attention, my acceptance of the abuse
- my body, my bills, my pushing levers
hitting buttons, - my blood pulsing in your capitalist machine.
You don’t make it easy to deny your scheme
But I say fuck it.
I know what I believe and your appeal don't make my top 10 hit.
Cuz no matter how hard you try
I just don’t give a shit
about gemstones, and designer clothes,
which brand of toothpaste whitens better, which deodorant stick dries faster,
and how my favorite rapper can make his pockets even fatter,
by getting me to buy the jeans with his name
that's sewn on by Third World underpaid slaves.
I don’t give a shit about what kinda car who drives,
or if they drive a car at all, cuz recognize -
we need every bit of that good ozone each sunrise.

I’m not impressed that you got people
Cleaning your house, making meals and answering beepers,
Man, your butler, your cook, and your chauffeur, they're are human 2,
and no worse but maybe better at it than you.
Nothing is for sale that has any worth on this Earth,
And the choices you make - they define
how much my heart breaks for your sake.

I smile at the pout of that pretty child,
she hasn’t learned yet
to hide her smile under thick regret,
cuz there's something they'll never let her forget
that her mommy and daddy don’t match
in color in other people’s ignorant
perceptions of normalcy, race and power.
Luminous skin - olive tones, pink, yellow, brown, the variations pretty
as a rainbow, unique,
but somehow you teach us to believe there’s meaning in the shades of skin -
when you define the bullshit we believe in.