The tomato farmer

Why did you give up, Bernard?

I left my nightshades, I left them in the yard

To be with you, through the bullshit and despair

Now at this time, you continue to play fair?

You were my champion, my fighter, my zeal

Did you give all that up to succumb to appeal?

From the ignorant, the nervy, the moderately wealthy

Why give up for them, and so fucking abruptly?

How high did I really set that proverbial bar?

Don’t take bribes, don’t rape, how utterly bizarre

Those hypocritical ostriches, dying of asphyxiation

The blatant, two-faced, disrespect for this nation

My cat, no joke, could do the job better

Paw you in the face if you even talked about the weather

Why did you hold back on all of those punches?

The man has dementia, not political hunches

Were you being fair so people wouldn’t die?

Because they were forced to vote during this corona outcry?

The deck was stacked against you, no doubt about it

You didn’t need to pack up just because you thought I was unfit

I needed you, Bernard, I needed you badly

To speak on my behalf, you would have done it so gladly

I gave you three dollars and watched you on the TV

I can’t stand the fact that I am so damn needy

On you, on “Blue”, on the ACLU

Hell, even on this shitty CPU

You see, they don’t understand why I needed you this way

They live in comfort and privilege and fabricate dismay

Do they think I give a shit about the implications of Red?

When I’m desperately trying my hardest just not to be dead?

My wife took a second job so I could deal with this cancer

All the premiums we’ve paid, just to wait on an answer

From the insurance conglomerates, oh nonetheless

Dollar signs in their eyes, banking on our distress

“Chemotherapy is an experimental treatment,” they say

Denying my healthcare, in such a disgusting display

Of greed, of creed, against all my needs

All in favor, of this fucking disease?

You think I give a shit about their access to abortion?

You think I give a shit about their transgender rights?

Where was all their advocacy at the beginning of this fight?

Where were they when I needed their support? Those parasites

They wanna guilt me, shame me, tell me I’m selfish?

Are they really that dense that they can’t see the anguish?

On me, my family, my brothers and sisters in this army?

Of course, I care, about the higher implications

For women, minorities, and all of the aberrations

But first and foremost, I needed to stay alive

So sit back down and spare me the lecture on 45

They had their opportunity, one they used so ‘selfishly’

Their primary vote, that right they held so firmly

To think bigger than themselves, they had their chance

I never expected, nor demanded, they think of my circumstance

It’s a pity they think our world is all but a dream

Conforming to their whims like a fucking machine

Blind to the favors, life freedoms of economic privilege

Articulating dumb platitudes, while sipping a ten-dollar beverage

What was so hard to understand about a system?

Where bias and corruption is much more than a symptom?

An ideology of comfort, for the state of affairs

News media using tweets to make out like millionaires

Why was it so hard to understand this reality?

Less work, more money, can I put it more bluntly?

They never gave a damn who sits in that oval office

Just so long as its occupant didn’t mess with their business

Of corruption, compulsion, on our members of Congress

All while they sat there, so torpid, so callous

So it’s a little too late for all this collective new rage

50 years of neo corporatism, never once did they engage

Perhaps that wild orange was just what they needed

To open their eyes to the realities never heeded

So now is not the time to go back to the status quo

Expecting us to rally behind him as if we won the lotto

You had your chance, Bernard. You played so squarely

Such a damn shame no one treated you fairly

Did they really not understand, that you were the ‘compromise’?

Was that seriously something they just could not surmise?

We tried it your way, to fix this system, legit

And we were bulldozed, and baited, and told to acquit

So a real revolution is now in order

Here, notated. This verse? The encoder

So step aside. This system? We’re about to castrate it

And at no time, not ever, will we be told to submit