(Poe meets Orwell) Hear the wooer's lies, Glossy, silken lies, Keeping steady focus on the erubescent prize, A salesman ever smiling, The charmer stalks his prey With petty praises piling, Beseeching and beguiling, He has his sordid way, Taking, taking, taking, His brute rapacity slaking, With his squalid enterprise, Full of lies, lies, lies, lies, Lies, lies, lies, The slipping and the sliding, The real intentions hiding, The conscience overriding, Lusty lies.
Hear the daily lies, The comforting, comfortable lies Of every conceivable size, Digestible pabulum for the incurably bland, For the small of mind and the glad of hand, Hopelessly smug and indisposed To look into the light, With minds made up and closed, They turn from truth exposed, And seek the shelter of the night, Avoiding with averted eyes All they wish were otherwise, Confused by the thinnest disguise, They hesitate and temporize, Then cast about and choose the lies, The cozy lies, The rosy lies, The lies, lies, lies, lies, Lies, lies, lies. The smoothing and the soothing easy lies. Hear the serpent's lies, The concealed community's lucifugous lies That eviscerate the social compromise, Arrogantly thinking they needn't obey The rules by which the rest of us play, By word and by deed they chip away At the country's very foundation, At the base of our civilization. Where, pray tell, is there room, In a decent, law-abiding nation For inveterate practitioners of intimidation, Disinformation, assassination, Covert opinion manipulation, Agents' provocation, And human experimentation? Why must we simply assume The national need for an occupation That lives on equivocation, On lies, lies, lies, Black loathsome lies, White gauzy lies That stupefy and paralyze, While we meekly tolerate Subversion of the Fourth Estate, And those who send up warning cries They slather with their unctuous lies, Paranoia feeding, Suspicion breeding, Justice impeding, Lies, lies, lies, lies, Lies, lies, lies. Clumsy, corrupting, Ugly, disgusting, Impudent, putrid lies. Hear the despot's lies, Enormous, encompassing, outrageous lies, Essential tools to tyrannize, Overawe and terrorize, Helpmeets of the bloody "isms" Generating needless chisms In the world. See them hurled At the opposition. See the flags of hate unfurled, Hear the leader's admonition, "To the wall. See the hatred mobilized And everything politicized, Turning simple wounded pride Into massive fratricide, Casting over one and all A spell, With bullying and bragging And propaganda never flagging, Taking, taking, taking, Principled resistance breaking, Making life a hell For the chosen sacrificial goats While the tyrant struts and gloats Upon the stage Of his own making, Turning all the land into a cage Wth no escape or privacy, No individuality, Just fear and coercion And total immersion In the lies, The lies, lies, lies, lies, Lies, lies, lies, The ruthless, truthless, megalomaniacal lies. David Martin