papa's got a brand new bag

for a small family, two rooms
is best, you eat the bacon,she shakes
the breast, one of who lied in past
embrace (the other just confessed)

interlude: family of four, maybe
five, divorce proceedings unassembled,
unaccounted for- vacation on the
beach, (what's one more?)

keeping up with the leisure set
ate up the cash in kitty, your
fat faced child strangled the thing,
discipline him (for god's sake have pity)

around town is best, most impressed
with the laughter of small people and
hand holding of the older two, a sense
of justification, (the accolades accrue)

what's best in modern living quarters,
a room for every brat, shiny techno
hand holding, a beauty pageantry- this
family will compete (the! gadgetry!)

winners, winners: still fuck Friday
nights, call it love, the bills are paid,
the children Have Things in hand
and (baby threw up a credit card grenade)

settling for eighty hour work weeks,
face of a hag, i concede your family
owns the most and your papa's
got a brand new bag.

-maggie may ethridge