{"id":29,"date":"2006-10-21T19:07:50","date_gmt":"2006-10-21T23:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2020-01-29T22:25:25","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T02:25:25","slug":"america","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/?page_id=29","title":{"rendered":"America"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-29-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/music\/america.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/music\/america.mp3\">http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/music\/america.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><em>inspired by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.writing.upenn.edu\/~afilreis\/88\/america.html\">alan ginsberg&#8217;s america<\/a>* and by the america i know<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\/\/\/<\/p>\n<p>america, i&#8217;ve given ya<br \/>\nall, and now i&#8217;m headed to<br \/>\nthe mall of america to spend a bunch of nothing.<br \/>\nno expenditures. i&#8217;m bluffin&#8217;, huffin&#8217;, &#8217;bout puttin&#8217; an end to ya,<br \/>\ndispense with your huntin&#8217; a little somethin&#8217; somethin&#8217;.<br \/>\nto be precise: two dollars and twenty-seven cents,<br \/>\na pair of nikes and a bowl of rice.<br \/>\nroll the dice relentless.<br \/>\nsend this mental presence into<br \/>\nsenseless sentence spinning,<br \/>\nde-sentimentalizing essence. winning<br \/>\nor losing&#8217;s not the object.<br \/>\nwhen will the human war be targeted<br \/>\nlike enemies are marketed<br \/>\nand put to rest regardless of<br \/>\nyour motivations? collective aspirations of a nation, hating<br \/>\nusing fusion and confusin&#8217; propaganda<br \/>\nto slaughter and slander opposition,<br \/>\nhold a dominant position&#8211;<br \/>\ngo fuck yourself, your smart bombs, and your covert missions.<br \/>\nwaging holy wars without admittin&#8217; that you&#8217;re sittin&#8217;<br \/>\nin the same teeth-gritting, power-grabbing stance.<br \/>\ni&#8217;ll do my dance when i&#8217;m ready.<br \/>\nfor now the course is steady:<br \/>\nlove the moment<br \/>\nbut don&#8217;t forget to let the feeling foment.<br \/>\namerica, when will you be less devoted to your potence and more angelic?<br \/>\nwhen will you take your clothes off, expose your-<br \/>\nself and shake your achin&#8217; pelvis?<br \/>\nwhen will you appreciate the irony of elvis?<br \/>\nadmit it&#8217;s frightenin&#8217; that white men<br \/>\ndye their hair to look like black men tryna look like white men,<br \/>\nbut it&#8217;s also funny.<br \/>\nadmit that sunny days and healthy children should be enough.<br \/>\nadmit that we could stand to share a little of the stuff we&#8217;ve got,<br \/>\nand quit taking from others.<br \/>\ni&#8217;m sick of your insane orders,<br \/>\nsick of your deranged borders,<br \/>\nand maintained border-crossings<br \/>\ndepressing me like rain water,<br \/>\nupon the leaking awnings<br \/>\nand onto good books.<br \/>\nwhen can i go into the supermarket and buy everything i need with my good looks?<\/p>\n<p>it&#8217;s you i&#8217;m addressin&#8217;, and<br \/>\nit&#8217;s time for some questionin&#8217;.<br \/>\nyou gonna let your feelings be controlled by cnn?<br \/>\ni know i&#8217;m obsessin&#8217;, and<br \/>\ni&#8217;ve got to admit<br \/>\ni watch headline news every chance i get.<br \/>\ncan&#8217;t flip past it yet,<br \/>\nthough i try to slip free.<br \/>\nit&#8217;s always telling me about responsibility.<br \/>\nbusinessmen are serious, movie makers serious,<br \/>\neverybody&#8217;s serious but silly me.<br \/>\nit occurs to me that i am america,<br \/>\nand america me.<br \/>\ni&#8217;m talking to myself again.<\/p>\n<p>america, after all, it is you and i who are perfect,<br \/>\nnot the next world, so why all the disturbance?<br \/>\nwhy all the ferment<br \/>\n-ing anger sold by sermons<br \/>\non every side making me nervous?<br \/>\nwhy the lack of purpose?<br \/>\nor the purposeful act of making surplus,<br \/>\nmaking your bank over the backs of servants?<br \/>\nwhat a circus.<br \/>\ncomplete with acrobats, lion-tamers, and ring-leaders,<br \/>\nfreaks, geeks, elephants, clowns, and shit-sweepers.<br \/>\nthe shit deepens, like new perspective on some scenery,<br \/>\nyou seem to be too much for me with all your machinery.<br \/>\nyou made me want to be a saint, then way too easily<br \/>\npulled the rug out from under me, teasing me<br \/>\nin my complicity. insistin&#8217; we<br \/>\nare in this together, &#8220;we got history.<br \/>\nwe got issues, see.<br \/>\nmove away, you&#8217;ll be missin&#8217; me.<br \/>\nsay good-bye to feelin&#8217; free.&#8221;<br \/>\nbut i, being me, have to disagree.<br \/>\ni feel differently:<br \/>\nyour ministry just pissin&#8217; me off.<br \/>\nat this rate, you&#8217;ll never get the best of me.<br \/>\namerica, stop pressin&#8217; me<br \/>\nand stressing me out.<br \/>\nno use in testing me,<br \/>\ni know what i&#8217;m doing.<br \/>\namerica, look around at all the ruin&#8217;, stewin&#8217;.<br \/>\namerica, are you in tune with the news in<br \/>\nthe papers? everyday it&#8217;s<br \/>\nanother person on trial for murder, like stasis<br \/>\nslid into regression&#8211;disturbing.<br \/>\ni find your complacence greatly depressing, unnerving.<br \/>\nhow could you win the cold war with a promise sounding like a joke?<br \/>\nyokes over the necks of your black folk, talkin&#8217; &#8217;bout<br \/>\n&#8220;FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY!&#8221;<br \/>\nc&#8217;mon, even hypocrisy<br \/>\nmore subtle will often seem<br \/>\na cover for some huddle, huddle, &#8217;bout to hustle.<br \/>\ni smoke marijuana every chance i get,<br \/>\nand dance to death,<br \/>\nin my room, playing with castanets<br \/>\nand casting fresh<br \/>\nglances at the roses in the closet.<br \/>\ni go to chinatown, get drunk, and never get laid.<br \/>\nmy mind is made up: there&#8217;s a debt to be paid.<br \/>\nyou should have seen me reading Marx and attempting to sway<br \/>\npublic opinion. common sense becomes the lecturer&#8217;s clay.<br \/>\nthe therapists say<br \/>\ni&#8217;m damn right, forgetting to pray,<br \/>\n&#8217;cause i can see the light by simply looking,<br \/>\nhearing each minute as music,<br \/>\nand choosing<br \/>\nto view the uncertainty of life with slight amusement.<\/p>\n<p>it&#8217;s you i&#8217;m addressin&#8217;, and<br \/>\nit&#8217;s time for some questionin&#8217;.<br \/>\nyou gonna let your feelings be controlled by cnn?<br \/>\ni know i&#8217;m obsessin&#8217;, and<br \/>\ni&#8217;ve got to admit<br \/>\ni watch headline news every chance i get.<br \/>\ncan&#8217;t flip past it yet,<br \/>\nthough i try to slip free.<br \/>\nit&#8217;s always telling me about responsibility.<br \/>\nbusinessmen are serious, movie makers serious,<br \/>\neverybody&#8217;s serious but silly me.<br \/>\nit occurs to me that i am america,<br \/>\nand america me.<br \/>\ni&#8217;m talking to myself again.<\/p>\n<p>asia&#8217;s rising up.<br \/>\ni won&#8217;t have a chinaman&#8217;s chance when times get rough.<br \/>\nmy national resources need some sizing up:<br \/>\nmy national resources consist of two bags of weed,<br \/>\nthree and a half rhyme-books, traveling at the speed<br \/>\nof sound,and twenty-five thousand<br \/>\ninstitutions for the housing of mental patients.<br \/>\nnot to mention the houses of detention,<br \/>\nnor the heart-wrenching conditions lived in<br \/>\nby millions of children,<br \/>\nand other underprivileged,<br \/>\nruining my image&#8211;<br \/>\nthe grumbling bastards.<br \/>\nmy ambition is to be president despite the fact i&#8217;m a recovering catholic,<br \/>\nfrequently stumbling backwards.<br \/>\ni think i&#8217;d be very good at mumbling passwords.<br \/>\namerica, i&#8217;ll sell you rhymes with 2.9 APR and nothing down.<br \/>\namerica, free your dissidents and save my fucking town.<br \/>\namerica, alan ginsburg must not die.<br \/>\nand death row must not fry,<br \/>\nor be so black.<br \/>\namerica, way back when i was seven, attending<br \/>\nsummer camp with my brethren and sistren, i&#8217;d assist in burning the flag as<br \/>\nwe&#8217;d secede<br \/>\nfrom the union every fourth of july,<br \/>\nfollowed by some ice-cream and some apple-pie.<br \/>\namerica, you don&#8217;t really want to go to war and have to die.<br \/>\namerica, it&#8217;s them bad arabs.<br \/>\nthem arabs. them arabs. and them chinamen.<br \/>\n. . . and them arabs.<br \/>\nthe middle-east wants to feast on us for hours.<br \/>\nthe middle-east is a beast that&#8217;s mad for power.<br \/>\nshe wants to take our cars out of our garages,<br \/>\nand drive them to mirages, making hajjs.<br \/>\nshe wants to kill new york and watch tv.<br \/>\nshe obviously wants our auto-plants overseas.<br \/>\nhe watches over me&#8211;big brother bureaucracy,<br \/>\nalways follows me. he runs the lottery.<br \/>\nno stopping me or stopping him.<br \/>\nhim big bambino.<br \/>\nhim make indians learn read and also run casino.<br \/>\nhim need big, black people.<br \/>\nhim work us eighty hours a week, yo.<br \/>\nhelp. i&#8217;m delirious.<br \/>\namerica, this is quite serious.<br \/>\nthis is the impression i get<br \/>\nstaring every day into my television set.<br \/>\nain&#8217;t been in prison yet,<br \/>\nbut it&#8217;s what i dream about when i sit in bed.<br \/>\namerica, is this correct?<br \/>\ni better get down to it already:<br \/>\nit&#8217;s true i don&#8217;t want to be in the military<br \/>\nor push buttons in corporate cubicles&#8211;<br \/>\ni&#8217;m hardly physically or mentally suitable.<br \/>\namerica the beautiful?<br \/>\ni&#8217;m asking questions<br \/>\nand doing my best in<br \/>\npressing for the truth.<\/p>\n<p>3 july 2002<\/p>\n<p>\/\/\/<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/wp\/images\/ginsberg_america.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>* enduringly resonant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>inspired by alan ginsberg&#8217;s america* and by the america i know \/\/\/ america, i&#8217;ve given ya all, and now i&#8217;m headed to the mall of america to spend a bunch of nothing. no expenditures. i&#8217;m bluffin&#8217;, huffin&#8217;, &#8217;bout puttin&#8217; an end to ya, dispense with your huntin&#8217; a little somethin&#8217; somethin&#8217;. to be precise: two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9449,"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions\/9449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayneandwax.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}