“Free Radical Bluz”

To folks like me unchosen to prance

Down the pampered path

Of primrose mathematics

 

Well I’m glad to be telling’

What little I know about it

Power up my lungs to shout it

Like Paul Revere would ready us

Against the patriarchal march

Of servile sharp-tooth fanatics

That we won’t get bled out

By the moneyed fraction

Or submit to sorry subtraction

Of our kids’ rebellious core

There’s a time n place

For long division

But we won’t heed no split decision

Cuz there’s no good reason to put up

With them bad ol’ numbers anymore

 

You can make up yer own verses

You can shout out what ya chuz

Shout out yer very own

Yer very own

Very own

Very own

Free radical bluz

Free radical bluz

Yer very own free radical bluz

 

To my friends n neighbors

Who wonder aloud

If silver really does surround dark clouds

 

Well I’m glad to be telling’

What little I know about it

Power up my sousaphone throughout it

Stars n stripes wave forever I figure

When all together with vim n vigor

Cuz our common sense is truer

Than a pie-in-the-sky detour

There’s no shortage of fair weather fiends

Who add no meat to yer cornbread n beans

So we don’t want his highness

Unknown for his shyness

To tell us when it rains

We unfettered go-getters

Do a whole lot better

Cuz our own hard heads have

Our very own brains

 

You can make up yer own verses

You can shout out what ya chuz

Shout out yer very own

Yer very own

Very own

Very own

Free radical bluz

Free radical bluz

Yer very own free radical bluz

 

To my fellow workers going it alone

Who square off with bosses

But just get skinned right down to the bone

 

Well I’m glad to be telling’

What little I know about it

Power up my memory

That I’ll not doubt it

There’s a lot to be said

For individuality

But yer dealin’

With corporate criminality

Ya gotta admit

That we’re not like superman

So we gotta come up

With a long-range plan

There’s a lotta people

In our situation

We’re the biggest bunch

Of agitation ‘cross the nation

We’re the biggest bunch

In the whole wide world.

Let’s compose a circumferential hymn

We’ll send the biggest e-mail

That’s ever been hurled

 

You can make up yer own verses

You can shout out what ya chuz

Shout out yer very own

Yer very own

Very own

Very own

Free radical bluz

Free radical bluz

Yer very own free radical bluz

 

[2014]

Photo: Verizon customer holds a “We are the 99%” sign during a Communication Workers of America picket line and march to Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City, Oct. 21, 2011 (Teresa Albano/PW)