Make Up

To be no cynic I really do try
But the tougher it gets as headlines flick by,
Increasingly hard to part truth from a lie
Just a cog in the system from birth ‘til I die.
 
I’ve tried really hard to play the game
To be just enough different but mostly the same
As all of the other cogs, placid and tame,
Idly spinning in localised fame,
 
But it seems that our world’s built on facades and lies
Girls are pursuing a gap ‘tween their thighs
Whilst guys judge themselves on a flexed bicep’s size
And love is now plastic, stocked in Bargain Buys.
 
Tune in or turn on to find out what’s new and
You’ll find a sad picture, shot through and through
With violence inflicted on many by few,
Blank heartache of profiles stained red, white and blue.
 
I do bother to vote but that’s just a charade
Of Eton Boys changing rules they themselves made
Then swapping the scores of games already played
And trading a text book for another grenade.
 
So much is made up, synthetic and fake,
Or pushed to the limit, but for whose sake?
Tugged at and torn, stretched so thin you might break,
Earned credit by weight of the stockpile you make.
 
So wash off that paint that’s hiding your face,
Forget all that froth, let’s get back to the base
Of just what it means to run this human race
If life is a card game, you’re holding the ace
 
Because all that you need is to pierce the screen
Of all that you tell yourself you have once been
And the media circus operatics you’ve seen.
Seek your truth to believe and then say what you mean.
 
Now it won’t be easy to give it this shake up
More awkward and pained than the most bitter break up
But from this dream (or nightmare) you’ve the power to wake up
Society’s torn but we can all still make up.
 
So I don’t wish to sound too exotic or grand
But you can’t make a fist when you open your hand.
Our lives are so brief, just marks in the sand
But you’ll shine all the brighter when your flame is fanned
 
By others who know what it takes to be you
Who know of the battle, the fighting you do
And really, those people aren’t so far or few
We all have our struggles and swamps to wade through.
 
Please let’s move beyond the push and the shove,
Aim that bit higher, lift each other above
Take that velvet fist from the iron glove
And really be radical. People, let’s love.