I'd like to buy a ticket, sir

a one-way ride

on red wheels round a rounded track

a one-way ride

that always circles back


I can't afford first-class, sir

I will not ask to sit

beside a first-class lady

or her crowd of thieves and doting fools

her torch tied up in their rules

the Precedents of their United State

Let them ride for free

I must pay the higher rate

for I have no money


Throw me beneath the wheels, sir

Let them burst my forty-hour flesh

and run me red along the rails

with the soldiers

and the slaves

and the foreigners

and the natives

Burn me in the furnace

Let them set aflame my dreams deferred

and spit me up industrial smoke

with the students

and the prisoners

and the housewives

and the unborn

We All grease the wheels and scream inside the stove

never name Us

always blame Us


Just one ticket, sir

a one-way ride around a rounded track

productive venture overseas and land

a one-way ride that always circles back

to stop where it began

a one-way ride...

I hang my head to cry


-x2A