Brother, where do you think your emissions go?
Pollution, smog, global warming, we all know,
but lo! And behold, here’s some mo’ to be told:

death traps on wheels, tariffs on steel,
if oil dependence doesn’t kill us first, we’ll
destroy the earth in our search for consumption
but instead, our reaction’s to weapons of mass destruction?

when you’re killing Iraqis at a level of abstraction
committing us to war for your satisfaction.
“But I need traction!”
There’s a new faction on this scene,

dropping sugar in gas tanks to glean folks off obscene
wasteful, hateful, shameful greed.
“Consume all you want — ten times what you need.
The rest of us will all get down on our knees,” (singin)

Chorus: Bumpin in my SUV
everybody see me, everybody be me.
Bumpin in my SUV
together we can be materially free

When’s the last time you took that tank off road?
You crossed a line, probably hold it to show
your folks back home how you like to roll
but the only rolling you’ll do is into the snow

or in a ditch on a turn, while you steady burn
more oil than we have, foiling our plans
to recapture this country, put it back in our hands.

Our nation’s transportation bears an inextricable relation
to our foreign policy, and our military fallacies
and actually, while we’re at it, don’t ignore
the way SUVs affect our atmospheric floor

more carbon dioxide, heating the planet
greenhouses gases spewing so that you can have it
in comfort, we build more lanes on highways
instead of giving any thought to building better trains
or trying a third way, riding bikes to class

Put the flag at half-mast, regulations not passed
as SUV owners throw us back into the past
imperial conquest, the last laugh:
using force to subjugate other people
so we can have more food on our plate (singin)

Chorus: Bumpin in my SUV
everybody see me, everybody be me.
Bumpin in my SUV
together we can be materially free

Look at your wallet. Haul it out your pocket with a crane.
You need one, there be so many cards bearin’ names
flight numbers for planes, the kitchen sink, insane.
All kinds of yuppie trinket memorabilia,

sayin’ “I feel ya”
to the girl behind the counter at the Starbucks
That we rolled up to in a car the size of a semi-truck.
We're [___]’in us all, building up walls

holding people so low, we’re all gonna end up crawling
while we’re hauling groceries and skis
in these SUVs that we claim to “need”

so we'll bleed black oil,
continue to attack foreign soil
while we here at home, remain mired in toil
in an atmosphere poisoned, backing up with all these emissions.

Observe the omission of decisions
reflecting the derision of our political system
by these SUV buyers, libertarian liars.

My actions affect you, and your’s affect me, too,
'cause if I spew CO2 into the air
the effects will be felt here, there, and everywhere.

We share the consequences
of even our seemingly private choices
so people of this supposedly God-blessed nation,
come on, raise your voices! (stop singin)

Chorus: Bumpin in my SUV
everybody see me, everybody be me.
Bumpin in my SUV
together we can be materially free

This entry was posted on Monday, October 16th, 2006 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.