—I’VE DONE A HUNDRED SONGS, FROM FANTASIES TO LIES 

 

Planet of the Apes

 

They let the monkeys out and the chimps ran amok

The monkeys ran faster than anyone expected

They ran across town like a black blur of flies

They ran for office and won

They ran the libraries and banned our favorite books

They ran interference between fact and fiction

They ran the district and the state and the entire country

They ran our lives telling us who we could or couldn’t love

They ran carrying bombs while dropping leaflets for peace         

    that were littered with calligraphy and lies

They ran the dying newspapers printing fake news

They ran the hospitals withholding vaccines

They ran our computers and phones 

They ran photocopier businesses and put their grinning   

     mugs on everything from stamps to passports

They ran the border around everyone else’s border

They ran Madame Tussauds and replicated themselves as 

      Jesus the Pope a king and warlord

They ran the schools and colleges but closed them all and    

      homeschooled us instead

They ran the gun shops and kept every weapon fully loaded