“The shits are killing us …” (Norman Mailer, Songs for Myself)
Inspired By Wolf Biermann’s Die hab’ ich satt!*

I’m tired of those shits
You know who I mean
They fluster and bluster
And think themselves keen
And the smartest of wits
I’m tired of those shits.

And what do we think
Of our pundits and macher
On the airways and stairways
With unending palaver
Whether rightwing or left matters hardly a bit
I’m tired of those shits.

Gun-happy, gun-crazy
On ground stood today
More shooting and killing
Our dear NRA
Loves its Glocks without quit
I’m tired of those shits.

Community’s gone
We’re all asunder
Each group on its own
Identity’s plunder, it’s hardly a wonder
Our vision’s the pits
I’m tired of us shits.

What keeps us apart
Is our failure to see
That the shit that we sow
Well, it comes back times three.
So stop. Contemplate. Freely admit
That it’s time for us all to clean up our shit.

* Wolf Biermann was an East German singer/songwriter and dissident, critical (from the left) of the East German regime. It is left as an exercise to the reader to set this piece to music (think ’60 protest movement).