[Originally composed sometime in the winter or early spring of 1986, in the depth of the Reagan era, and then substantially edited 1/8/96. At the time, I hoped it wouldn't apply again in my lifetime; now it's even more apropros than when I first wrote it, almost 20 years ago...]

When I was young, I would swear I had a mother
Who was flesh and blood and real to me
But she is gone, and now I see
What was once my mother has been turned to an abstraction
Something to die for, to set us on the glory road

When I was born I think I may have had a soul then
But it went away, I feel so cold and dark and empty
Where my soul sat has been refitted with machinery
And now I march with hollow purpose to a future on the glory road

I'm another body on the glory road
Moving toward a greater Amerika
I'm a chink of purpose in a greater whole
Trying hard not to remember that I'm walking on the Glory Road

When just a boy I would have sworn I had a father
Who could make confusions clear for me
But now my father's gone, I see
Just empty skies and silence in a land of plenty
So I'm looking straight ahead now, down the center of the glory road

When we were young we may have had something worth saving
But we didn't know what it was
And me I'm still not sure I do
Just know it's gone now, won't ever be back
And our despair has sent us out upon the glory road

I'm another body on the glory road
Moving toward a greater Amerika
I'm a unit of function in a greater whole
Trying hard not to remember that I'm marching down the glory road

And on that road, you can always see the sunset
It's right in front of you, you're always marching west
As muzak charges us with canned angelic fire
And brings us closer to the pyre at the ending of the glory road

I'm another body on the glory road
I'm alone amid the cadence of a million footsteps
There is no more meaning than our lonely goal
As we follow any voice that stands in front

I'm another body on the glory road
To the immolation of America
As the ache to purge the emptiness that fills our souls
Draws us onward to the pyre at the ending of the Glory road