Operation Ivy
"Sleep Long"

Sleep long, sleep well
Only to awake in hell

One day I saw a man asleep
In a doorway on the street
Through walls of sheltered inhibition
I perceived his condition.
Dying of hunger, and exposure
Food and shelter, two blocks over.
Within this place we breed and dwell
We've created living hell.

Sleep long, sleep well
Only to awake in hell.

City sleeps and pigeons flutter,
Vagrant dies in the gutter
Prideless death somehow befitting
To life spent working on forgetting.
Riding on the bus, I looked outside and thought about death,
Passing cars the only tribute to his gasping final breath.

Sleep long, sleep well,
Only to awake in hell.

Then I went home, to get my mind off things,
I decided to watch television.
Constant subliminal brain immersion
Subconscious death wish coercion.
Buy and consume and want and need
Never fall from the trap of greed.

I thought about the bitter pain
Of jail cells and falling rain,
I thought ahead and I looked away,
What can you do anyway ?
In sheltered youth and our pretension
Avert our eyes to divert attention
Only to see the human victims
Always there to remind us.

Sleep long, sleep well, Only to awake in hell.