trekking through a nightmare

i keep waking up
thinking this is
a bad dream

there really isn't
a never ending war
in the Middle East

my fellow man
wouldn't hurt children
and women
in the name of dysfunction
and disorder

my political representatives
wouldn't allow
corporations to donate
unlimited funds
to campaigns

no one is actually
considering making
an internet based on
anything other than
net neutrality

the wealthy who have
built empires on the backs
of the poor and middle class
would never think about
paying anything less than their
fair share
to support the society they
take advantage of

kids wouldn't steal art
because they are aware that
if artists can't make a living
from the art they make
then there isn't a point
in creating the very
best art they can produce

no one pretends they will ever be rich
because the rich would never allow
too many people into the exclusive
club they have created
just to make sure there is a clean divide
between the haves and the have nots

the society in which i live
wouldn't even begin to believe that just
because there are two political
parties looking out for their
own best interests,
that there isn't another viable
solution in a third or fourth party
that may or may not use
government in the very same
way that the previous parties did,
recirculating the same greed
and deceit

companies wouldn't build products
to break in a certain period of time
in order to sell more of the same product

oil companies wouldn't buy out inventions
because the inventions could potentially
impact future sales while providing
a clean alternative to the product they supply

religious leaders would never use
an idea of god to prosper
individually while withholding profits
from the society which they claim to serve,
thusly building empires
to brainwash the masses into believing
we are all divided into neat little categories
of good and evil without any gray areas
which actually make up the sum of civilization

the FDA wouldn't intentionally withhold
a drug that could cure a specific disease
because the profit margins are too low

doctors wouldn't practice medicine
in order to become rich,
keeping patients on prescriptions
that do more harm than good
while turning a blind eye
to the potential medications the FDA
refuses to admit
just to keep prescription drug companies
from losing profits

i keep waking up
thinking this is all a bad dream,
but it isn't,
we're living the very nightmare
we dreamed up

and sleep is never restful
when there are monsters
hiding in every shadow