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