Don't Try to Read the Signs (Spoken Poem with Music)
- last year
Partial Lyrics:
Don’t Try to Read the Signs
I was going through the residential neighborhoods to avoid traffic
And I noticed everyone around me was looking a little old
And there were fences up everywhere and on them were signs
That said we don’t call the cops with a picture
Of humanity blacked out and removed
Tall cameras pointed down on us and
Whirled and whined as it tried to pick up every one of our movements
He’s traveling to his destination that’s three large states over
Cursing geography for the mountains
It’s created out of sand, with a snowplow blocking traffic
And both shoulders and the remaining lanes
Filled with semi-trucks with their trailers all going
The same speed and all them read no aid or comfort to my enemies
He’s wondering what this could mean but
The jake brake squeals out his thoughts
A trailer full of cattle with eat beef branded on all their hides
They’re shuffling a little embarrassed
But I guess it’s no different than the man who leads them
Marking himself with all the signs that
He’s taking his carriage straight into the darkness
Where the river flows upwards and
There’s no paddling against the current of the waves
They’re wearing a sign that makes it clear
Just how many people they’ve killed
But the stadium stops the game
So everyone can applaud them and
They’re getting stopped on the street so many times
So people can shake their hands, pat them on the back
And most all take pictures of all their children
As they cross the road but
The hand is holding up a blinking light for now
Why they’d spray paint their contact information
As well as their social security number I was more than a little baffled
But I really shouldn’t be too shocked and appalled
After all everyone wants to accomplish recognition
And for the band of hackers and thieves playing
In front of their creation
The spray painter is the most famous person in the world
And certainly that’ll count for something
The sticker said how much they’ve run through the forests in Africa
Which I would have been more impressed with
Had I not grasped the purpose
Everyone that’s slowing down and succumbing to exhaustion
Get shoved down and don’t duplicate
And have their cells split off and join the tiniest particles of dust
In the universe which the deities inhale on their lunch break
The symbols of their bank account were spilling out onto the road
Where they’re run over by the man pulling the tractor
Splitting the eardrums of all the children
And the brains of all the parents that don’t realize their creations
Are laying on the ground and getting handcuffed
By the country boy serving as the city cop
Complaining about training the weapons to match their user’s violence
“God’s going to murder you in your sleep”
Or at least that is what the sign in block letters said
And I watched the owner of the building put them up
I didn’t want to talk to him
But when someone dared to ask
Why he’d say something like that
He complained and wailed
Don’t Try to Read the Signs
I was going through the residential neighborhoods to avoid traffic
And I noticed everyone around me was looking a little old
And there were fences up everywhere and on them were signs
That said we don’t call the cops with a picture
Of humanity blacked out and removed
Tall cameras pointed down on us and
Whirled and whined as it tried to pick up every one of our movements
He’s traveling to his destination that’s three large states over
Cursing geography for the mountains
It’s created out of sand, with a snowplow blocking traffic
And both shoulders and the remaining lanes
Filled with semi-trucks with their trailers all going
The same speed and all them read no aid or comfort to my enemies
He’s wondering what this could mean but
The jake brake squeals out his thoughts
A trailer full of cattle with eat beef branded on all their hides
They’re shuffling a little embarrassed
But I guess it’s no different than the man who leads them
Marking himself with all the signs that
He’s taking his carriage straight into the darkness
Where the river flows upwards and
There’s no paddling against the current of the waves
They’re wearing a sign that makes it clear
Just how many people they’ve killed
But the stadium stops the game
So everyone can applaud them and
They’re getting stopped on the street so many times
So people can shake their hands, pat them on the back
And most all take pictures of all their children
As they cross the road but
The hand is holding up a blinking light for now
Why they’d spray paint their contact information
As well as their social security number I was more than a little baffled
But I really shouldn’t be too shocked and appalled
After all everyone wants to accomplish recognition
And for the band of hackers and thieves playing
In front of their creation
The spray painter is the most famous person in the world
And certainly that’ll count for something
The sticker said how much they’ve run through the forests in Africa
Which I would have been more impressed with
Had I not grasped the purpose
Everyone that’s slowing down and succumbing to exhaustion
Get shoved down and don’t duplicate
And have their cells split off and join the tiniest particles of dust
In the universe which the deities inhale on their lunch break
The symbols of their bank account were spilling out onto the road
Where they’re run over by the man pulling the tractor
Splitting the eardrums of all the children
And the brains of all the parents that don’t realize their creations
Are laying on the ground and getting handcuffed
By the country boy serving as the city cop
Complaining about training the weapons to match their user’s violence
“God’s going to murder you in your sleep”
Or at least that is what the sign in block letters said
And I watched the owner of the building put them up
I didn’t want to talk to him
But when someone dared to ask
Why he’d say something like that
He complained and wailed