Why I'm moving to Canada

This land is your land.
This land is my land,
the home of the brave
and the land of cotton
and the world’s largest supplier
of tupperware containers and accessories
(So take that France).

This land is drug stores
crammed side-by-side
and gravel driveways leading
to white picket fence paradise
and all best possible results
taken out of context.

This land is small towns
with 4 churches and 5 topless bars
and a Wal-Mart that towers over them all
like some soaring, Olympian monument
to great selection and low, low prices.

This land is skin-changing Corporations
that live forever like vampires,
drinking and shitting in the same reservoir
of our blood and sweat and tears,
of light beer and gasoline
and castor oil and sweet tea
(‘cause hey, we don’t need to know
where it came from:
is that a thumbnail-
now don’t make a scene hon…).

This is a land that can put 41 bullets
into the body of a black man
reaching for his wallet
but cannot spare one
for a man who sends our sons and daughters
to the edge of an ocean of despair
for the pleasure of liberating someone else’s sandbox
and making the world safer for the Democracy of Exxon Mobil
(we call this political economy:
apparently a model well worth dying for).

This is a land of pyramid schemes
and pipe-bomb dreams
of chop-block Chevies
and bellies bursting seams,
where every press-conference is a carnival
and the men in suits are clowns
who swallow fire and speak in tongues
to drown out the screaming, squishing sounds.

This land, my friend, is drinking long-necked beers
in bars with rowdy, boisterous strangers
and not having to tell anyone who your father was…
and how he worked for 40 years
in that same airless coffin,
that pillbox repository
for the detritus of middle management,
and how he swayed so gently
from that light fixture
where he took his stand against the madness of
good vibrations
that tear you apart from the inside
one delayed aspiration at a time-
until all that’s left is a pile of receipts
and a bric-a-brac smile
that cracks like cement
under the cold glare of
street lights.

This land is full of rocks to bend the plow
This land is full of soil to hide the dead
This land is full of choruses to warn the hero
That just as his time has come,
So will it go again.

This land is your land, my friend,
and you can have it.

(for b. benston)

More comments:

• On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, DarkPoet (258) wrote:
  
  Eat your heart out Carlin.
  
  
• A former member wrote: ummm....
  
  
• On Friday, October 17, 2008, Echoes of Orpheus (693) wrote:
  
  Don't forget the most important part, I'm in Canada, and I'm awesome :) just joking, this was a great piece, and I agree with it
  
  
• On Friday, October 17, 2008, Aurora_Light (518) wrote:
  
  I must agree, and Canada is so much more beautiful.
  
  
• On Tuesday, December 4, 2007, Nill (133) wrote:
  
  Ummmmm.....dude.....that's what Canada is like. Though I wanna go to Nevada where the strip joints are next to the bars you piss where you drink. To smoke inside I miss. Good write though. Enjoyed it. Maybe try going to Andorra?
  
  
• On Tuesday, July 24, 2007, Reefer_rave (185) wrote:
  
  I love this, it describes the things people refuse to really see and yet are undeniably there
  
  
• On Saturday, May 19, 2007, capt_funguy (909) wrote:
  
  still of course ... a classic ... funguy
  
  
• On Sunday, May 6, 2007, ArtemisticSin (21) wrote:
  
  Just too true, I like all the metaphors.
  
  
• On Wednesday, March 28, 2007, nell (309) wrote:
  
  i'm speaking for all canadians in saying we'll gladly have you!
  
  
• On Sunday, January 7, 2007, Astra Dei (588) wrote:
  
  well spoken
  
  
• On Monday, November 13, 2006, HalfDarkAngel (74) wrote:
  
  wow. this is so honest. i totally agree with you. when you leave for canada i will go too.
  
  
• On Friday, October 27, 2006, TropicalSnowstorm (666) wrote:
  
  What a witty piece, I love the section "This land is small towns with 4 churches and 5 topless bars and a Wal-Mart that towers over them all like some soaring, Olympian monument to great selection and low, low prices"... Ciao, T/S
  
  
• On Saturday, October 1, 2005, Last1inLine (15) wrote:
  
  So well said. Christ. Nice write. The ending is just perfect, and the wal-mart bit killed me. Well done.
  
  
• On Thursday, September 1, 2005, xserratedsoulx (248) wrote:
  
  fucking beautiful, and tragically true. i stand impressed. xXxlaurenxXx
  
  
• On Thursday, June 16, 2005, Sticky Kitty (284) wrote:
  
  wonderful. so lovely lovely dear ...-kitty
  
  
• On Saturday, January 15, 2005, AniDayz (1051) wrote:
  
  this is soooo kick-ass--in the face...so intelligent. i simply MUST fave this. GREAT write
  
  
• On Tuesday, January 11, 2005, ardneK (83) wrote:
  
  That is so great, you know, what is happening by me, is the take over of drug stores, and publix. I love this - >|
  
  
• On Wednesday, December 22, 2004, BeautifulCalamity (498) wrote:
  
  *faves*.. this was too great, every line spoke such depth through such surface. . nicely written
  
  
• On Wednesday, December 22, 2004, BeautifulCalamity (498) wrote:
  
  "and how he swayed so gently from that light fixture where he took his stand against the madness of good vibrations". that whole stanza was wicked. .just awesome write overall. . a brutal honesty, but one you wrote about in a perfect way. .WOW. . *f
  
  
• On Wednesday, December 1, 2004, stuart_pid (164) wrote:
  
  i laughed, i cried, i pondered, and then i laughed some more. "so take that france" that was too perfect. well done.