Give Them Something Shiny

Everybody's furious today

about a sentence someone said.

It's on every single channel,

it's the only thing there is.

And it's genuinely appalling.

That part isn't even false.

It's just extremely, weirdly timed,

and it will not matter by the spring.

And I checked what else went through

while the country had its head turned —

Give them something shiny! (something shiny!)

Give them somebody to hate!

Give them something shiny! (something shiny!)

They will not look up for days!

It doesn't have to be a lie.

It just has to be enormous

and pointed at the wall.

Furious by morning at a sentence and a face,

by the evening it's a movement, by the season it's replaced,

and the thing that went through quietly had a number, not a name,

so it never made a headline and it never took the blame.

Rage isn't a threat to them — rage is inventory,

they will stock it, they will move it, they will sell you back the story.

Aimed, it's a danger. Aimless, it's a trend.

Ask yourself who's tired and who's rested in the end.

So use it, don't refuse it —

just decide where it goes —

Give them something shiny! (something shiny!)

Give them someone small to blame!

Give them something shiny! (something shiny!)

Let them win it in a comment!

It doesn't have to be a lie.

It just has to hold the eye

until the vote is done.

What passed? What passed?

While we were shouting — what passed?

Say the number. Say the name of it.

Nobody knows. Nobody knows.

GIVE THEM SOMETHING SHINY! (something shiny!)

AND I'LL WATCH THE OTHER HAND!

GIVE THEM SOMETHING SHINY! (something shiny!)

I'M NOT ANGRY ON COMMAND!

Something shiny. (something shiny)

I'll be furious about the thing

that's still true in a year.

Watch the other hand.