Ozymandias in the World of Wealth

(Remixed by Iris Hurley)

Welcome to the World of Wealth,
where life is such a wonderful thing,
where everything revolves around the pennies in your pocket,
and how many notes you've got in your wallet.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

When you wake up in the morning with your wife,
from your sweetly scented Slumberland life,
the instant smile cracks your face,
as you look in the mirror at your gold encrusted teeth.

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

The wife struggles to move, weighed down with gold and silver.
She crawls to the bathroom,
for a piping hot shower using sweetly scented soap,
she sits her fat, creased arse on the teak toilet seat,
and instantly redecorates the bathroom, in a pleasant shade of brown.

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Work beckons, you answer it's call.
In your plush office block, so shiny and tall.
But you never look back, you never look back, Mr. Money,
at the poor fools kissing your feet,
whose stomachs yearn for that forgotten taste of meat.

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

With that sly grin of power,
you shower them with gifts from the world of wealth.
The scraps off your plate, the rags off your back,
the change from your well worn pocket.

And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

You collect your offspring from the private school,
and snigger together at the comprehensive fools.
His uniform gleams, his textbooks are neat,
and he's already booked his parliamentary seat.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

But you're a slave driver, Mr. Money.
Living in your world of milk and honey.
Living in your world of wealth.
But you never look back, you never look back, Mr. Money.

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

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