Sold Out

sometimes I feel sold out

like everyone is offering me a pretty line

an insincere smile and a billboard sign

a “new better you!” for just one more dime

we live in a society that runs on gimmicks

manipulating people’s emotions with cheap tricks

it’s science and psychology

making dollars from joys and fears

preying on weakness, fatness and tears

I am weary of sellers only wanting to gain from me

tired of works of art that move me

only to knock me over with an offer I can’t refuse

no strings attached is too good to be true

but I am the problem

I am to blame

because I am consumed with consumption

buying and selling fame

saving a dollar or ten

the hunt and the game

because I am part of a network of sellers and buyers

looking at others like their souls are for hire

because I am part of the problem

every time I stop seeing humanity

and obsess about what they can do for me

I cease to see individual’s love and pain

and only look for what I can gain

well maybe we can’t beat ’em so we may as well join ’em!

the pushers and peddlers and used car salesmen

(cause we will never be as bad as them)

but just that’s neglecting our own freedom

and I

I just want to breath

I just want to see beauty and know it’s free

I just want to create something lovely

I just want to bask in life’s gifts and give things away

I want to see love where there’s nothing to pay

I just want to know

deep down in my bones

nothing is owed

and all that matters

can’t be sold