The Manifest Destiny Game

Get up and get dressed,
leave the house,
set out for the next town,
the next state,
the next country, the next
civilized world.
You’re sick of the games
they play here and
it’s time to go.

The game being played here
is called “Button your lip
until we tap you to speak.”

The game you want to play is called
“Leave me alone for a while until
I’m ready to join in.”

You don’t know
where they play it
but you’ll kill to get there,
kill to stay there,
kill to win that game.

If you end up somewhere
where no one’s playing it
you’ll start it yourself.
Everybody there already
better play or else.  

Or else what,
says one of the natives
of the place you do end up.

Button your lip
until I tell you to speak,
you tell him. And you

button it for him when 
he won’t.  

You groan it out loud
and you don’t care who hears:

Goddamn savages, 
primitives, beasts blocking
the playing field.
Why are you still here? I’m ready
to join in, and it’s
not your game anymore. It’s
not your play. It’s not
yours.