LYRIC FOR SALE

By Julie Beck Morrow

“Ghost of Tyranny”

(Julie Morrow)

Where have you been? Where are you, now?
You work and you pay; you comply and avow.
Perfunctory speech in a cage—on a screen,
adhere to the morals to which you’ve been preened.
Gather your courage; perform your outrage,
without realizing you’ve taken their bait.
Get off your phone, touch some grass, go outside,
reconnect, reassess what is real and contrived.

(Chorus)
Curating consciousness, polishing screens.
Brains prone to melting, like tepid ice cream.
They program desire and dampen the mind,
while tightening leashes and fastening binds.
They work in the shadows, they creep like the ghost
of tyranny dressed up in judicial robes.

Find a face, find a friend, look it square in the eyes.
See the pain, feel the skin, the external disguise.
Does it look like yourself—does it look like a foe?
Does it warrant belligerent fugue from a throat
that is gagging on lies just to climb to the top
of a mountain of shit that they market for stock?
Is it worth all the anger, or worth all the rage
when you’re setting the bricks on your own goddamned cage?!

(Bridge)
Take a breath, close your eyes.
Look around, realize.
You are bound, you are tied
to a stake they contrived.

(Repeat Chorus)

© 2026 Julie Morrow (BMI). All Rights Reserved.