It starts with a few things missing at the store
A few things missing that you’re likely to ignore
That didn’t impact this trip, or the one before,
But it might impact the next 4,
or every time you try to find provisions between now and the forevermore

Between now and the day
when your neighbors form a horde
and show up with their forks and torches
trying to force your pantry door.

And you could give them double what you really can afford, but they’ll all be back for more,
because your meager little crop is not enough to stop a war.

Not enough to stop a conflict
Not enough to stop our greed
and primal needs
from just erupting into one communal mosh pit

Cause Uncle Sam will starve you just this side of fucking Auschwitz if it pleases Congress.

If it pleases all the hawks so they can gas up all their bombers.

Then devastate some other poor families, far away and overseas because we illegally obtained their dna and linked them to Osama.

And when they send police to burn your gardens and your trees, and they tell you can’t feed yourself, you just might get a visit from Obama.

He can put his arm around you, maybe offer you a drink of ice cold Flint water.

Tell a little story bout a hard-working immigrant who’s here to live the dream and make a future for his daughter,

Who works the high-fructose corn syrup vats at the factories that forge our fodder.

And he’ll tell you what a slap in his face it would be to refuse the fruits of all of his labor just to live a little longer.

He’ll tell you how the spirit of America is carried by the people who would brave a little danger just to make the whole collective stronger.

He’ll make it sound so sweet that you’ll completely understand why he’s the ruling class’s ‘Fixer’ when they need a Revolution conquered.

So buy some stock in water, take a good, long look at your local Farmer’s Market.

Soon the skies will darken.

Soon the crops will grey and only ash will be the harvest

They’ll take EBT away from those it hits the hardest

Regardless of your talents, you’ll be starving artists.

Locusts lounge about the empty carts and gather in the thicket

Anywhere the dust is thickest

All the signs have blown away, and, anyway, there’s nothing left to picket.

We unanimously voted to approve every one of Joe’s decisions.

Because We were far too weak to speak a whisper of resistance

And some were too blinded by their bright Orange nightmare to look into the distance.

Or look into the past and see that Joe’s plan to feed us all means eating all your meals in prison.

That’s the truth of profit over plenty in a capitalist system.

If the harvest ends up in your hands, or rotting in the trash, only profit makes the difference.

Only money will decide if they neglect your children.

Because hunger kills, so corporations found a way to see that hunger makes a killing.

And The Truth is hard to swallow,
but it’s plenty filling.


~ Jesse Jett