so what about animal rights in darfur

so what about
animal rights in darfur
and human rights on dark side streets in rome
where a couple of gipsy boys
are waiting to rob you

so what about
almighty polish plumbers
taking all your jobs
already tomorrow

so what about
adolf and joseph
mao zedong and che guevera

so what about the dreams gone rotten

so what
if we have just one life to live
and one death to die

just one life just one death
and a lot of love in the meantime

you don't have to be an animal
to have a right to be loved
you even don't have to be
a black hungry child

it's all about love
it's all that there is
somebody who loves
is never a beast

things are tough all over

things are tough all over
wine bottle corks
don't grow back into cork trees

nobody protects animal rights in darfur

almighty polish plumbers
cannot fix all the pipes of lonely flemish ladies

things are tough all over
every time we fart
the climate changes to worse

everybody feels guilty
and buys redemption from oxfam

things are tough all over
in mother's belly we all were sans papiers
and even now
we are lacking paper
the printed paper called euros and dollars

things are tough all over
electronic woodpeckers drill oil from oil lamps of our minds
the light of knowledge fades out in the dark age of iphones and internet

things are tough all over
but human flesh is still soft
still weak warm and wet
and this comforts me a lot

not that i feel comfortable
but i feel
that i'm right to tell everybody
who wants to share one's guilt with me
to fuck off

things can be tough
but i am soft

i'm tough enough to say it

the things are soft all over

i don't kill baby seals

i don't kill baby seals
i am not communist
i am not jew
i am not nigger
i am a guy from east
with a knife in the pocket to cut smoked sausage and cheese

i don't grill christian babies
maybe i should but i prefer lamb
i am a simple guy
i'm not deep and i don't care about umberto ecco
i love girls with long legs who like joy division

the eyes
dead lamb don't follow me when i sleep

the eyes
dead lamb don't follow me when i sleep

i don't think about god when i see a double rainbow

i am nihilist
this is what i was taught at school and at home

question authority
wear a mask if needed

this is the scar the soviet era left me
the generation of rotten punks
i hate enthusiasm
any activism is fake to me
any slogan is hollow
any ideal is too official

with people like me
you cannot start a revolution
but you can't maintain a system either

but the hell with me
the world is wider

and the baby seals and french communists
are safe from me
they can safely dream

reality is real

you go to bozaar concert hall
it's a balkan festival
and everybody waits for a miracle
a miracle of reality

people in the west feel that
east is more real
serbia
albania
macedonia

the further you go the more real it gets
india nepal thailand
all the way around the globe
to the jungles of amazon
to the strange mountains or peru
where they used to sacrifice children

you go to bozaar
to buy the miracle 16 euros a day
or take a flight to salty and sweaty mexico

sometimes you feel you have it now
the miracle
the wisdom of native people
the grand secret of living without bathrooms

but then you return to your reality
to brussels to leuven to aalst to namur
to roosendaal to wetteren to dendermonde
and the miracle is gone

the miracle is gone
but reality is still there

your reality
it's a miracle as well
miracle of superhighways and water closets
that most of you don't notice

take a look in the mirror
all realities are real
your chubby belly and chunky buttocks are real
and all you need is to clap your hands
and sing in shower

clap your hands and sing
reality is real

i plead guilty

i plead guilty
to global warming
to hunger in korea
to aids in africa
to gulag and auschwitz

i plead guilty
to not saving whales
to pissing in a river
to not flossing my teeth
to drinking and sodomy
to wearing fur and sleeping naked

i plead guilty
to not showing my love to my parents
to not showing my anger to the ones i'm afraid of

i plead guilty
to the fact that walloons hate flemish and flemish hate dutch

i plead guilty to disrespect
to the misery of doubt
to mental and physical masturbation
to lack of concentration

i plead guilty to reading from a paper

i plead guilty though i feel no guilt

i plead guilty
so all the good judges around us
can judge and punish me
and later feel guilty as well

i plead guilty and carry out the sentence

i'm sentenced to live
and read long poems
without feeling guilty