Everyone is selling joy, brand-name, guaranteed to last,
Guaranteed to be the best, never mind the competitors.
Convert, upgrade, buy, consume, spend,
Rededicate your mind and Visa card to the new path
That commodifies the human spirit.

The revival and the medicine show
Are one; the festive tents, the lively gospel choir
The men who put on the airs of professors,
The captive audience to the slick prophets
Who loiter around the Nordstrom and Men's Warehouse.

Or feel free to be left out in the cold
to seek your own way Where all the sign posts are bare,
And wine and song bring only the fleeting semblance
Of joys that may not exist, And every road has a toll;
The coveted freedom to be treated with indifference.