Almost 20 years ago, got my first taste of tear gas
Never thought it would be so intoxicating
Back then so idealistic, thought the war wouldn’t last
Knew it was revolution we were inoculating

A few years later got a face full of pepper spray
Running in black bloc on the streets of New York City
Watched comrade’s head baton-cracked with a sound I still hear today
And realized revolution ain’t that pretty

When Occupy hit I picked up the burden yet again
Cautiously optimistic we could really make a change
Facilitating GA’s as a grizzled veteran
While the nature of oppression remained the same

Systems of control updated and modified
The chess game evolving ever more complex and intricate
The concept of revolution slowly getting commodified
The collective attention too distracted to give a shit

Standing Rock, Ferguson, exposing more brutality
Trevon Martin, Philando Castile, so many undocumented calamities
Can we ever overcome, or is this really Armageddon
There’s gotta be some escape from this insanity

Because now they’re shooting bullets, whether real or rubber coated
And these pandering semantics don’t do shit, it’s pathetic
Flash bang soundtrack on a backdrop of COVID
The change we really need has to be systemic.