Image: Stephanie McMillan

I know you feel it. I know you all feel it:
This world is broken; we are broken

We walk around and pretend, but our smiles are just tokens
Paper masks that hide a fear, too deep, to be spoken

A fear that life may pass us by while we play by this system’s rules
A fear that we failed to even try for fear of looking like damn fools

It’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game
And this game is really fear, to use another name

Instead of being human and being open, we disconnect and play it cool
Instead of love and raw emotion, we stay divided and we act cruel

It’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game.
And this game is just the system, to use another name

This system has us running around
Like. Empty. Human. Shells.

Too asleep to resist it
And buying everything it sells

But can’t you see the bigger picture
Don’t you see the wider trap?
It’s just a ruse to make us feel empty
So we’ll fill the void with material scraps

But material objects can’t fill the void
It’s just our money and soul they sap

For it’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game
And this game is just the rat race, to use another name

It’s a race to the bottom
A race to the end

We’re isolated and we feel lonely
Despite a million Facebook friends

For it’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game

“Modern man”, and modern worlds
Obsessed with modern gadgets
These “modern girls”

Why not simplify
This “modern world”

For it’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game
And this game is social transformation, to use another name
And the result is human commodification, total enslavement; such a shame

We’re a humanity in crisis
A society in decline

But the crux of the crisis, is that the decline is by design

For it’s a game, it’s a game
And that’s the essence of the game

© 2018 Ghada Chehade  Reposted with permission

"Dr. Ghada Chehade is an independent analyst, writer and spoken word artist/poet. She holds a PhD from McGill University. Her research on the war on terror received the national Award for Best Dissertation in the Field of Rhetoric, Writing Studies and Discourse Analysis. Her poems have been published online and in several books." She's written for Asia Times, from which this bio is sourced, Whatsupic, her Soapbox blog, and more.

As a teenager in the Reagan era, Stephanie McMillan became "involved in various group efforts to resist oppression, exploitation, imperialism, ecocide, and other threats to humanity and the survival of life on our beautiful planet. The purpose of [her] work is to expose the systems at the root of these problems, and to encourage constructive action." "My art is for dreamers, resisters, and troublemakers: to feel confident that you are not alone, that you are right to fight back, and that together we can find ways to build a just and sustainable society." stephaniemcmillan.org