The Four Usurpers Poem by Cunctus Cope

The Usurpers seize and ruin our dreams of the perfect stranger
Though we are not outside – we feel that we are in great danger
Outsiders cannot exist if we are not inside ourselves
We have never fit these molds – we only measured their shelves

The First Usurper is Johnny Appleseed
His surname is Coleman, just like the family hearth
Grandpa John Reb hangs across from John Barleycorn
John Galt assumes role of “whipping boy for your scorn”

He will be Johnny-come-lately, then Johnny-on-the-spot
He may brawl with John Bull in the court parking lot
He’s got to go places, sign John Hanc-, and be a star
For of all clichéd pseudonyms, John Doe’s the worst by far

Sentiment works as useless sediment, dead weight for the soul
Disavowal stimulates self-righteous delusion
Soak with sweat, the interpreter no longer cares for accuracy
Carelessness is seen as the truest precision

The Second feels so effete from the label’s sound and meaning
We’ve dropped in at the point where the school board’s intervening
He’s so raw he can’t clench his fists, nor resist, just slit his wrists
But the right-sided thumpers can never cease nor desist

Does he like to cross-dress, look a kinky mess?
Does he paint his toes, speak in high alto?
Does he look to Adam and Steve during Sunday mass?
Does he have a scenario for each honcho in the class?

When we shut our mouths and united for a cause
No one tried to limit our world’s free-speech clause
You may not have helped to construct the tower
So, will you rest in Babel’s shadow, crumbling by the hour?

We see what we have succumbed to
As Atlas shrugs his weight
We look to prophecy for a guess at fate
We think to live life a moment too late

Number Three has just renamed herself Machinenmensch
Maxwell had the hammer, she worked with the wrench
She is clinging to Karl and Carroll for her philosophy
Only a Freudian femme fatale would weave this tapestry

Tweedle twins represent west and east of the gavel
Each one glares at the other as Cain did to Abel
Chessman and Bundy on the jury with Rubin Carter
Hey, you were accused, so Bobby can’t try and barter

Every day I imagine sitting with a big bad CEO
See if anything in his heart besides greed can grow
Oh, if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be triple-A
If we rule by emotion, our economy will pay

The Fourth is to blame for this compilation
He’s a bleeding heart – worse than any combination
He thinks that dated ideas are holding us back
We’re up with the times – he’s with the wrong pack

Give him our catalog, a mall’s a modern synagogue
Show him the joy of breedin’: it’s better than Eden
The pleasure of sabotage and a groin-shot montage
Why, dignity’s a drag – get a life and sag
Get down on the floor – Pink Floyd is no more
It’s never vanity to take advantage of the fair
It’s not vanity to not realize or care
It’s keeps sanity to not realize or care

We see what we’ve stumbled for in the wake of the great
But the Usurpers will carry all our weight
The Usurpers will carry all our weight