As If You Had To Ask Poem by Alfred Barna

As if you had to ask “What’s happening? ”
(Fear, fear, fear, fear)
As if you had to bother to be offering
(Love, love, love, love)
People have become despots
Hoping to rule and unruly lot
People don’t bother to care about care
Watching it all disappear

Remember, Mom used to talk about this one
We just used to laugh and say “No”
Now they are rounding up reporters
And outspoken with arms “Time to go”
Now they openly speak of torture
Drones and other flying entities
We speak of our superior culture
Yet we are only creating, future enemies

We used to believe, we could say anything
We’d be free of chains, and of bombs
Who could have conceived, now what is happening
Droning brothers, sisters, dads and moms
Star chambers deciding who may live or die
Lists being made who may travel or stay
Senators telling us what we can read, and spy
Now we know, it’s all gone away

Smedley Butler knew he was a racketeer
Ordered to be an enforcer for an international mob
Nye Commission knew armaments created billionaires
Who never care for all the lives that they rob
Over Wilson, House, Roosevelt and Stimson they ruled
Insuring that things will go inching their way
Putting in Lenin, Trotsky, and then later Mao we were fooled
Right down to killing King and JFK

As if you had to ask “What’s happening? ”
(Fear, fear, fear, fear)
As if you had to bother to be offering
(Love, love, love, love)
People have become despots
Hoping to rule and unruly lot
People don’t bother to care about care
Watching it all disappear