It echoes impulses
Generations old
An all too familiar pattern
Starts to unfold
A place once forsaken
As a foreboding wasteland
Is now an opportunity
To civilize and supplant
You’re gonna train
Us urban heathens
To do as you like
Let them eat bikes
Pseudo-luddite conquidstodores
Tear through the streets
Fueled by self-righteous indignation
Why can’t I bring my lifestyle
Everywhere
Regardless of situation
The solution to a lack
Of food clothes and shelter
And denial of human rights?
Let them eat bikes
Why isn’t this city green
Why is it so mean
Why won’t let us show you the way
Condescension
And colonialism are inextricably linked
And vain self-righteousness wins the day
People dying of aids live on 330 a month
In the BX and the Heights
Let them eat bikes
The suburbanization of an urban nation
Will vanquish pestilence and vice
Let them eat bikes