and yet

cool kids / euphoria / buzz
the brashest, the dopest, the funniest
the place where all the money is
where stupid is as stupid does
we love her despite and not because
land of abundance
Chiefs, Cowboys, Mavericks, and Braves
the land of the freaks
and the home of the slaves

the best and the brightest
the dumbest and worst
genius and madness
blessed and cursed

bullet holes in classroom doors
Chinese junk stacked up
in ghastly-lit stores
incentives badly misaligned
one mo’ child left behind

but also

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telegraph, light bulb, airplane
PC, internet, GPS
radio, Blockbuster, AAPL
AMZN, NFLX, PBS
NBC, New York Post, Village Voice
embarrassment of riches / paradox of choice

Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Zach de la Rocha

united by fear / load up on guns / now you do what they told ya

Oregon Trail dysentery
Tron, Jaws, Atari, MTV
Michael Jackson, Beastie Boys, Axl Rose, D&D

feeling of ever-present danger
smile from an effervescent stranger

The Matrix, X-Files, Ed Norton, Dark Knight
Breaking Bad, GTA, Sean Penn, Fortnite
baseball: psychological warfare between pitcher and batter
America: Every invention that ever really mattered

King Dollar / world police
Kanye West / Mr. Beast
finger lickin’ chicken leg
all-you-can-eat buffet / Jenny Craig
beautiful homes / unaffordable prices
isolation / housing crisis

booming GDP per capita

new all-time highs for agita
this military parade, brought to you by Coinbase®
160-milli pills from Purdue then heroin to take their place
militarized cops LARP / prance around like show horses
as a wise man once said: some of those that work forces…
dipshits born on third base do home run trots
social media butterflies arrive like psychotic thoughts
mind hollowed by offshore-funded bots
connect the dots
get by paycheck-to-paycheck if you work hard
for everything else, there’s MasterCard

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accept the American tradeoff
choose to live in the land of QQQs and Madoff
accept what you cannot change / laugh and let cry
you decide to eat meat; you accept animals must die
like our societal pact with alcohol: it’s super fun (but it kills)
America is cash and prizes, new highs, rock bottom, cheap pills
The Game of Life is part roll of the dice and part skills
try not to land on the space that says
bankrupt from medical bills

CUT TO: Unscreamed screams

IG model with the beautiful grin
there’s a hole in her thigh where the Ozempic goes in
moar bigger 10X oversubscribed IPOs
luck must never be mentioned in the presence of tech bros
if you don’t buy a ticket you can’t win
welcome to the jungle of ego, narcissism
greed, grift, and sin

and yet

people are literally dying to get in.