bells (churches, schools, and cellphones)

listen – can you hear the bells?
do you know what they foretell?

the only reason to treat people like dogs
is so that other people can become gods

now I never made a deal with the devil
but I have spent some days on his level
see, we sat just above and behind the steeple
and he said “watch and learn, ‘cuz here comes the people
ring a bell, ring a bell and they come
ready to hear of the father and son
ring a bell, ring a bell, and they run
and when they arrive, they’re ready for instructions
now do you see how a church really functions?”

and maybe it’s because I was raised Catholic
– but I don’t think ya’ll even see the half of it

they say, “ask not for whom the bell tolls,
because it tolls for thee,” but I guarantee
that ya’ll hear em everyday, just like me
and I am worried that we’re running out of
time, see:

we all pay heed to the bells
and bend our knees to the time they tell
with years of training by age twelve
we know to set them for ourselves

and even then, we know we’re headed for a hell

where there are bells to say we may sit
and there are bells to say we may stand
and bells divide the day eight ways
each with its own list of cant’s and cans
like “children must be kept busy, my pretty
you know the devil works with idle hands!”
there are bells to say you may eat
and there’s bells to say you may leave
there are bells to say you are late
there is somewhere you’re supposed to be
and by graduation you will believe

 

you’ll divide your sunrises into sevens
think of retirement as a sort of heaven
and think that following your dreams is a childish suggestion because you have learned your lesson

which is how we all end up standing on ground
that we believe does not belong to us
praying for the day that it will
when all of our energy and skill
can finally go to what we build
instead of the machines that kill

ask yourself:
why do the children of the poor
sit in square rooms with steel doors
in buildings with barbed-wire fences?

we do this with the best of intentions
and it seems that our best defense is
no child left behind –
otherwise,
who knows what dreams they might find?

every warship that is made, and every missile launched
is a million children’s dreams that we brutally stomp
we could spend our time, and we could spend our money
on making sure that no child ever ever goes hungry
but it goes to drone strikes and bulletproof Humvees
and we don’t see the cycle, like flies caught in honey
just year after year after Roman calendar year
there’s a whole lotta money but way too much fear
so there can’t be peace, or justice, not yet, not here
and the guns and bombs are to keep you safe, my dear

we don’t question bells in landlines and cellphones
we’re just like “haha! Ive got personalized ringtones!”
we don’t see the hold Ma Bell has got on our domes

we say “rat race,” but there’s no starter’s gun
just the bells we set, inches from our face

it makes me think we are the dogs of war
if you deny it, then what you running for?
if you don’t, whaddaya think we’re running towards?!