Autopsy

they all assumed it would happen with a bomb
a rocket of molten radioactive flame
quick and easy and violent like a video game
instead it was the steady drip of poison
   in the veins
      in the brain
the media monkeys kept the score
national suicide prevented civil war

they bought you for pennies on someone else's dollar
before you realized what they had known all along
   you were for sale
      the system rigged to fail
and you wondered whether Princess A got along with Princess B
   one seems nice
      the other catty
the royal expert on the morning news seems chatty
living carefree lives on the backs of the poor
practically begging for civil war

give a billionaire a break and he'll love you
throw a penny to a beggar and you're Mussolini
at least the rich guy will consider you
when he needs someone to wash his Lamborghini

i drove through the old town square
   to see what was left
the boards were peeled and fading
   the trees bereft
dots in portfolios
absentee landlords with inherited pride
passive engineers of collective suicide

capital mobility produced national fluidity
loyalty is a commodity like anything else
the merchant princes board their yachts
   with coke and plastic whores
      tax abatements by the score
         every soul a weeping sore
while national suicide prevents civil war