Identity Theft Poem by Frank Bana

Pay attention to the news!
Coups are happening overseas
Soldiers lurk in the bushes here
In crevices of soil and trees

Bugs are slowly hauling off
All your easy liberties
Assured and so familiar
You scarce remember what they were

But you will miss them if they're gone
And your children will thank you none
When drunken agents of the law
Plunge their hatchets through the door

It's hard, I know, to be one's best
Living now and living here
Numbed, fatigued and short of rest
Distraught by loneliness and fear

But run the data through a sieve
And check with an alternative
Play close attention to your dreams
Carry no cash for others' schemes

Lest they steal your name and shoes
And trade your wages for their wars
While, dazed by entertainment shows
You let slip all that once was your's.