Pissed

There's a lot of ways
I maybe ought to feel:
philosophically detached
grateful for recent good luck
focused on coming opportunities
regretful of past openings missed,
and it's not that I don't at all

but what I really feel is pissed

I grew up learning about democracy,
industry, charity, and civic responsibility,
only to learn that American "patriotism"
is a sort of sordid joke,
and "the land of the free"
either never was or is history

I did my best in university,
swallowing my pride
by memorizing mindless formulas
and jumping through hoops just because
I was told to do;
Well, I got my university ring
and I'm not saying I learned nothing,
but I don't really tell kids to

I've been thrown in a cage
cussed out by McCarthy style guards
and fed the kind of grub tossed to a slave;
And 1 in 6 humans brought here as such
even today behind oppressive bars lay

I've gotten so anxious
I could barely talk;
all I really wanted
was a job at a bookshop
a sandwich joint, or a coffee-house;
Well, nobody did shit
till I done blew my top
then they put me in a psych ward
with one half-time counselor
and loaded me with brain-killers
(yeah, that's a cure)
till I felt maybe worse
than I ever did before

It'd be a lot easier for a dude to move on
if I thought all those worries were gone
but there's more woes and scams ahead:
the way that I'm going that goes unsaid,
see, I don't really know how to explain
but I've come to believe that there's opportunity
for American bards to sing fiery truths,
to fire up 401k ex-hippies and soul-sick youths,
that progress is moving at a decent pace
and there's plenty of hope for the human race

These are my plans:
I take great pleasure in them,
and I know I've been richly blessed
and at times have been a profligate rake;
Actually, I feel pretty damn okay
which is why one of my
more prominent notions I'll say:

!!!I'm god-fucking pissed!!!