MASS MEDIA MELANCHOLY

Tasteless tongues articulate meaningless words
Structured sentences solidify the half-truth
While empty minds fill and purge
Like a bucket with many holes.

Complacent people find fault with good
While paying homage to evil intent.
Buy a ticket to your salvation
Send more money to save the nation.

Young people have no hope of a better life
They look at the world with contempt.
Pleasure is their only escape, if they can find it,
From the moral high ground of self-righteous creeps.

Time is the real teller of truth
For many it is but the enemy of youth.
Cinema images of heros and thugs
Lulling the people with superficial hugs.

Amen brother! They say in the church of the street
To verify the pain and frustration of nothing to eat.
Souls of countless millions devoid of meaning
Wander through the ocean of inhumanity.

Pledges of health and welfare come down from on high
Mothers holding children waiting to die.
Political leaders promising a better life
While walking the edge of the devils knife.

Look to the good in mankind you say
While the media eagerly seeks out every day
The pleasures of Nosferatu live at five
Death and unhappiness attract the glass eye.

Oh but look at that one, he’s on the level
With good intentions oh yes there are several.
The knife of truth peels back the skin of reality
Only to find hypochondria and hypocrisy.

© 1994 Tommy Barrios