CliffSongs

  Home is Where the Assault Rifle Is   The promises deflated, The charts pointing nowhere. The statistics dancing to the strident melody, The midnight rant, The better bully welcomed. What warm air can further pump the ego? More guns. Get them out on the street where they belong! Bring the fear home. Show the world! Flaccid power display. Shake your fist at the lies you tell: That’ll show ‘em! Bring the fear home, Swamp the streets with the unnecessary, How that wets the pants! Power over your groupies slipping, You show them more guns, That’s entertainment! This is the circus, Will they do without the bread? Have you found your Colosseum, Or the Bastille? More guns then! Bring the fear home! March the military round and round! When two or more are gathered in democracy’s name, Is that a riot? Certainly some find your moves laughable… And some find lockdowns distasteful, And most of those voted for… More guns th...

  Dead Silence   Why do you shout so? You have been heard before. Though not all your words have been so clumsy. Still, some have disguised their intent. Too long you have professed charity, Too long you have written the moral. Too long behind the compassionate rifle, Too long taking careful aim. Soiled virtue your superhero cape, You become the cartoon villain. The generous hand can also wield the whip, What price goodwill? Transactional friendships tire eventually. Broadcasted voice gone strident, Your red glare rocks the ramparts, Stripes and stars inverted fly. Has your twilight come at last? Or is dawn yet coming, Not as much a rebirth as a lesson: Dark will not endure. Will you again be a giant, But more gallant, More genial, More grounded, And less grinding. With such hands, Giving could be lavish, And still provide comfort at home. No miser has yet carried his savings beyond. Let these times be the pain of g...

  Belief Brief   You found comfort in the chaos crew, Gave meaning to your misconstrue. You let your reason come unglued, You let yourself be roughly wooed. Fantasy fiends you would have slew, How you narrowed your own view. You took the bait right on cue, How did it circle back to you?   They cobbled up the secret sign, Invented history to pine. Painted for you ragged decline, Dazzled you with new design. Set beasts to freely malign, Reminded they are not your kind. Gave you codes to nightly untwine, And what you read between the lines.   What do you perceive, What have you conceived? Do you live the dreams that you have weaved? Do you really believe What you want to believe, Or do you believe that you believe?   Complication, complication, This no longer a flirtation. Complication, consternation, This is you as a causation. Fantasy enacted damnation, A nightmare of your formation. Frustration, m...

  Conundrum   A puzzle I set before you: Why did this time go so astray? Who was elevated against odds: Crawling creatures that dark the day. Bums and rogues and criminals, Slopped their way up and hope to stay. See them prancing before you, Oblivious of their decay.   A conundrum some fail to see, Too beholden to iniquity. These uncomforting truths they must flee, The enigma ages ungracefully.   The lies that put them where they are, Their power maintained through hearsay. See them lined up against you, Arranged in tidy disarray. They remain envious of The things they cannot take away: Love, and light, and laughter, Saved up for a rainy day.   The conundrum fits too closely, Too beholden to iniquity. These uncomforting truths they must flee, The enigma ages ungracefully.   The query is already in your mind – It becomes clearer every day. Is it really such a mystery, Why it on our minds so we...

  Cold River (Psalm for a Dictator)   Cold river running, Hot-blooded gunning, Cold-hearted cunning, There’s a cold river running.   A cold river is running through humanity, A love of hate built into the machinery. The empires built on inconstancy, Grand efforts cover for the discrepancies. Allow the nurture of degeneracy, And promote all the favored conspiracy. Disallow all claim of illegitimacy, Row the cold river running through humanity.   Cold river running, Hot-blooded gunning, Cold-hearted cunning, There’s a cold river running.   Pursuing genocidal insanity, While they are pursuing their mark on history. Disregarding description of infamy, Known as infamous is still a legacy. Require their wants met in immediacy, Serving themselves only; this dire fantasy. Consequences met with their hilarity: Flooding a cold river through humanity.   Cold river running, Hot-blooded gunning, Cold-hear...

  Flounder   See the story evolution, Minions thrown into confusion. Produce yet more illusion, Guiding to the wrong conclusion.   See the lying expounder: Speaking to the echo sounders. Convoluting canard confounder, Wailing, flailing, see him flounder.   Flip-flop! The questions never stop, Find another frantic fantasy to shop. Hard stop! See more info drop. Gotta squash this story chop-chop!   Minions waiting, details mutating, What result from this conflating? Restructuring and restating – No one believes; so frustrating.   Fire one, defame the other, Too many outlets to smother! Around this one topic they hover, What else will they uncover?   Flip-flop! The questions never stop, Find another frantic fantasy to shop. Hard stop! See more info drop. Gotta squash this story chop-chop!   Just a regular guy, Telling a regular lie, This time you won’t get by, It’s going to...

  Descent and the Darkening   What is this waking you from your uneasy sleep? How long did it take this horror to creep? How were you to know what burden was in store? How much of this did you willingly ignore? Which of these acts are an exaggeration? How did they manage this horrific transformation? Did you not see this happen in your plain sight? Day never suddenly becomes the night.   But you ask, “Why has this trial come to our place?” The ordeal has again risen, Only wears a different face. But you ask, “Why me? Why here? Why now?” The scourge came upon us long ago, It is but ours to unallow.   Do not each look to blame one another, It was you each who forsook your brother. Shook your head, turned your back, chose to be blind, Do you think you will remain unassigned? The demand has come that you blindly agree, The demand has come if you wish to be free. The torment comes again to curse us all, We must united ...

  The Broken Promise   The broken promise: This is what we are, The broken promise. We held ourselves so high, But that was only our estimation – Now we swim with our sewage. Our systems aren’t just breaking, They are not just being degraded, They are being savaged, They are being inverted upon themselves, And perverted against us, All of us. We are the broken promise: A beacon pledged, Now stained in red, And glaring orange. A light that shines not for humanity, But that illumes our inequities, Our inadequacies, Our failure. We are the fading spark, Creating our own ash, To be blown about, By an ever more despairing wind. We are the ray that could have been, That should have been, That is no more. We are the broken promise: A voice against the din of oppression, A call to betterment, An exclamation of hope, and of fervor, A roar against madness and degradation, But we are become a screech, An expression of ...

  Served   The comfortable betrayal, The heavily feathered nest. The approval of the faithful, The lack of the people’s best. The mocking of the learned, The unconsciously averted eye, The loyalty perverted, The conscience no longer nigh.   Servant of the people, Do you serve yourself first? When all is said and done, Have you done your worst? Servant of the people, Serving up deceit, After all the spins you’ve spun, How will you keep your seat?   The conditional nay-say-all, The denials when too pressed. The need to downplay all, The needs gone unaddressed. The accusal of the watchful, The refusal to meet the eye. The obeisance to the fraudful, The allegiance to the lie.   Servant of the people, Do you serve yourself first? When all is said and done, Have you done your worst? Servant of the people, Serving up deceit, After all the spins you’ve spun, How will you keep your seat?   T...

  Exodus   Selections on the shelf going small, No one left to make the haul. Piles of unused drywall, Masked men have answered the call.   Alligator alley prison wall, Florida man on the ball. Veggie absent from the stall, Wallets empty and still in thrall.   The unherded bovine, Unfinished roof short of skyline. The fruit rotting on the vine - They say the exodus is going fine.   Commodities going unpacked, What’s left found on the racks? Pallets unmoved on the tarmac, Leaving the grocery with the empty sack…   Forests left to burn black, Trails too overgrown to track. Hotel luxury gone unstacked, Which of you takes up the slack?   The unherded bovine, Unfinished roof short of skyline. The fruit rotting on the vine - They say the exodus is going fine.   Isn’t this what was voted for? Isn’t this what was in store? It’s getting worse, some call for more, Shortsightedness galore....

  Dragon in the Garden   It was born in the land of queens, Its ruin should have been foreseen. A reptile sired by the vile, It makes good use of the corrupt machine.   There is a dragon behind the garden wall, And it claims not to be a dragon at all. But it belches and it burns, And steps on anything it considers small. There is a dragon in the castle keep, A dragon who is burrowing in deep. And it thrashes and it crashes, And it burns your land around you while you sleep.   It crawled Gotham, waste in its wake, Offered less a deal than a take. A love of wrong far too strong, On the make as long as you stake.   There is a dragon behind the garden wall, And it claims not to be a dragon at all. But it belches and it burns, And steps on anything it considers small. There is a dragon in the castle keep, A dragon who is burrowing in deep. And it thrashes and it crashes, And it burns your land around you while y...

  Shade   The pulses, The ones and zeroes, They echo across a creation as intangible as breath, Their reality is the product of arrangement, Constructs that disappear, dissolve, disengage, With the flick of a switch, Or the whim of a nature uncontrollable. What real phantom will you embrace? What impalpable rock sets your feet? What two-dimensional figure do you reach for? Only the glare of the screen answers. Words. Words, words and words. Colors and sounds from any distance unresolved, The flat plane observed, Lifeless, Though it resembles animation. Without a mouth of its own, It consumes. There is no reality here: What is meant to be seen is seen, What is meant to be heard is spoken. Words. Words, words and words. They are but a shade of the speaker, Insubstantial as the breath required to speak, What is seen is meant to be seen – Reality has more bruises. Imperfections hidden by pretty phrase, Implications misr...

  Beast   The chest is now no longer unbeaten, The hulking imbecile is pacified, For now… Only for now. But the ego hungers, There is no satiation. No reward is large enough, No praise loud enough, No blood hot enough to satisfy, “More” is the only answer it hears now. The beast is ravenous, The animal is rabid, The creature rages, And still it is uncaged. It will not be tamed, It cannot be tamed, It will rain itself upon the world as acid and fire, And still it is uncaged. It has revealed itself: It is lunacy embodied, It is a careening carnivore, It is demonic and unmanageable, And it is eyeing a terrible weapon: It wishes to release hell, And all of us know this. It must not be allowed. Yet, The safeguards have been gnawed upon, The controls are weakened, The buffers assailed, And it senses its moment… It must not be allowed. It has wished its entire existence to be feared – Now is as good a time as any f...

  Storytimes   He didn’t say what he didn’t say, But he says it every day. Storytime in the middle of life.   He doesn’t say what he did, He didn’t say what’s on the vid. Storytime in the middle of life.   Watch it go down every day, Watch it go down, but what’s the play? Storytime in the middle of life.   You saw what you saw But what’s the story? They tell you it’s cheap allegory. You heard what you heard, But they claim it ain’t real, You saw what you saw, so what’s the deal? Storytime in the middle of life.   He said that he plays the cards dealt, She said that he said something else. Storytime in the middle of life.   They say other things they didn’t say, They never say what they didn’t say. Storytime in the middle of life.   They told each other, but not you, They told each other and the rumor grew, Storytime in the middle of life.   You hear what you hear, But what’...

  The Not King   See that smirking arrogance, Unfettered by intelligence, Now is shedding all pretense, At acting within license.   Gaudy, fraudy birthday display, Pissing the tax dollars away. Protests ruthlessly warned away, Dictator engaging in cliché.   Schedule honoring unearned, Faking support for which it yearns. Self-celebration as world burns, An ego-stroke the main concern.   Marching madness in the brain, “Me, me, me”, constant refrain. Decrepitude, the showing strain, Ineptitude or just insane.   Watch it shirking diligence, Watch it racking up expense. Anything not praise is offense, Feeding on malevolence.   Cliff Lake 6/14/2025 Copyright © Clifford Lake 2025

  March of the National Fraud   Desperation the new sensation, Distractions without cessation. Shifty grifty carried on, Violence the new hypnotic song.   Fever fantasy TV star: Make California an abattoir. Who follows derailed train car, Now that you’ve fallen way too far?   Power play, don’t look away, Robbery in the light of day. Immigraton, false negation, Polls sinking, such frustration.   Fever fantasy gone bizarre: Make California an abattoir. Who will follow your fallen star, Now that you’ve taken a step too far?   Bogus bill, border shill, Undermine the people’s will. Guard deployed, so much noise, Emptied tills by little boys.   Fever fantasy super-tsar: Make California an abattoir. Who will favor your memoir, Now that you have gone so far?   Here we are, you can’t ignore! Tax the rich and not the poor! This ain’t what we voted for, Tax the rich and feed the poor. ...

  Days and Days   Day after day what has you compelled? Day after day what madness endures itself? Day after day what nuisances into you melt? Day after day what peace is from you withheld?   Trouble, trouble, sometimes it’s double, Again you pick yourself up from the rubble. From without the palace or hovel, Reality will pierce the bubble.   It’s no use just getting by if that’s all you plan to do. It’s no use living the lie if that’s all you know how to do. It’s no use getting high if that’s all that gets you through, It’s no use asking “Why?” when the answer is you.   What is the little program for today? On which little outcome do you prey? Which little unplanned thing causes dismay? How can you stand such disarray?   What little thing has you all affray? Every little thing has the means to go astray. Remember what Frank would say: There is always more trouble every day.   It’s no use just getti...

  Spell Check   Brash moves in the public eye. Rash moves all undisguised. Ass moves based on old lies. Suckers are born every minute, Some believe they can still win it.   All this fraud is in plain sight, Unless the news refuse to light. Disaster no longer a “might”, Are we left to swallow spite? Criminals infest the towers, Indiscrete, they flex their powers. Time is short, this is their hour, Your checks and balances they scour.   Draining even those called friends, Impudently serving their own ends. Severing ties with no thought to mend. Daily they tally the score, All they have and wanting more. Ignoring any uproar, Nakedly grifting galore.   Validity is of no concern: Abandon all, let them burn. Nimbly fascinate then spurn. Imitate what’s deemed lofty, Trashy copies always off-key. Yearning always, always faulty.   How long can they rob the coffers? Unreliably still making offers, Bu...

  Midnight Pockets   What dark enclave meets? Gathered for unholy chore. What misdeeds performed here? They leave their souls at the door.   What sigil marks them? What profane stain is scored? They vote from their purses, Greed is given the floor.   Mammon wakes them, Mammon stakes them, Mammon breaks them, Mammon takes them.   Guarded whispers, winking eyes, Craving leaks from every pore. Their every want now revealed, To whom is their fealty swore?   Mammon shakes them, Mammon makes them, Mammon breaks them, Mammon takes them. Cash spilling out from the bedroom drawer, Accounts sky-high and set to soar, Having it all and wanting more, Honest men disappear in vapor.   Witching hour vote done, Choices counted and paid for. Crooked smile on demon’s son, Knowing what is next in store…   Mammon wakes them, Mammon stakes them, Mammon breaks them, Mammon takes them.  ...

  Relics Remix   Relics stolen from unspeakable eons, Misunderstood, Misrepresented, Misused. Curated control. Marvels of unadmitted civilization, Mysteries adorned in ritual, Explanation buried beneath conceived canon, Manuscripts long tainted, Mistakes made in millennia, Necessitating mandate, Guilts absolved in the text. Hear the holy men declare themselves! There is no doubt of them, Given the endless repetition… Miracles long past lose their potency, Though reaffirmed often in blood. Ancient words ring hollow Until twisted properly, Revealing new truths, Born from greed, And justified with slaughter. Now are the relics repurposed, Repolished, Held aloft for new reverence, And a better violence. Let the credos ring out! Let us misinterpret the scrolls In our own image! For bloodletting is sacred, If one reads between the lines. Therefore, let us choose carefully, And reimagine all To suit our present nee...