Driven to Question

Was listening to some Sweatshop Union songs. They're a rap group that actually rap about issues worth talking about. Big ideas. Not ho's'n'gats. Got inspired to write this. It became somewhat of a lyrical format with a chorus that changes a little each time. Somewhat happy with how it turned out. To get the last few stanzas either go read my motocross flash fiction or just know that I ride motocross and it keeps me from becoming content with a life that holds no valid reason for contentment. To feel adrenaline pound through me always reminds me how vivid life can be at times and how drab it is when I give in and quietly accept the path forces apart from myself lay for me.


I'm still young but I try to fight it
A lot of people are telling me how to think
So I'm left divided
Because what they say I should be
Is nothing less than hypocrisy
Deny my impulses and live in complacency
Forget to be me become a living breathing machine
Completing tasks in sequence without asking the reasons
I can't forget about who I am
Again and again,
My identity is all I have
And the world's trying hard to do away with that
If I don't work, I can't live
If I don't earn, I can't give
If I can't be a signature on a paycheck
Then all I am to them is a trainwreck

I don't want to be perceived as worthless
Just because I don't earn enough for purchases
Just because I don't think I need the approval
Of insitutions created to test me and invest me
Into the moneymaking scheme that is society

And I've tried damned hard to compromise
Even as I write I am living a lie
I've given up a lot to do what they ask
But after evey assignemnt I just get another task
The glass is less than half empty, shit it's broken
I can see this clearly if I let myself be outspoken
But even that is a crime in this modern day life
I can't do what I would choose but this they don't believe
Just because I live in the land of the free
So many opportunities out there waiting for me
That's what they tell me if I raise my voice
I'm not given a choice about ignoring the life
That I would happily live if I just had the time
No, I'm told to assume that their way is right

I don't want to be perceived as worthless
Just because I don't earn enough for purchases
Just because I don't think I need the approval
Of insitutions created to test me and invest me
Into the material world that is society

Maybe I am a bit outraged
Maybe I've gotten beyond frustrated
But why are you taking it in stride
Why the hell do you not seem to mind
Giving up the time that is more valuable than gold
To make a deal and end up sellin' your soul
Just to work five days a week
Come home and turn on the TV
Forget about love, life, and dreams
Forget about being what you know you can be
I've even tried to repress the adrenaline addiction
That keeps me from becoming a cyborg straight out of bad fiction
Like all you other robots doing what you're told
But it's the need for speed that keeps me whole

I don't want to be perceived as worthless
Just because I don't earn enough for purchases
Just because I don't think I need the approval
Of insitutions created to test me and invest all of me
Into this egocentric fucked up society

It's the need to feel more alive than I am
That keeps pulling me back from the edge again
And it's that same need to feel alive
That first made me straddle a dirtbike
It's that ever-present threat of my whole world ending
With a mistimed twist of the wrist that keeps me defending
That hopeful part of me that wants to believe
That life was meant to be lived meaningfully
Because when I risk it all and the blood pounds within
It reminds me how fragile this life really is
I could be dead tomorrow at the universe's whim
So why not make the best of the time I've been given?
Why not rattle the bars of this invisible prison
That the whole damned system keeps me locked up in?

I don't want to be perceived as worthless
Just because I don't earn enough for purchases
Just because I don't think I need the approval
Of insitutions created to test me and invest all of me
Into the wasteland that is modern man's society