Letras
Next, state your business
Hi, yes. I'm just here to check on a permit to put up a small fence
Around my front yard?
People keep letting their dogs poop on my grass
And I just want to
To erect a residential perimeter barrier
You require Form 44-A from the City Zoning Office
And Form 44-B from the Local Council
Right, well, I have
Once those are obtained
You must hire a certified municipal consultant
To draft a Barrier Specification Document
You are responsible for their hourly rate
Plus a non-refundable city processing fee
Of two hundred and fifty dollars
Yeah, a consultant
For a two-foot wooden fence
Following the submission of the consultant's report
The forms, and the processing fee
The standard administrative review period is six months
Six months?!
I already did this!
I paid the fee, I hired the guy
I submitted the forms eight months ago!
I just want an answer
My yard is a literal toilet!
Sir, elevating your voice violates facility decorum guidelines
If you submitted the forms, they are in the queue
It's just a little fence
Please, I'm begging you, just look at the file
Next
We used to build towers, we used to strike steel
Now we just monitor the spins of the wheel
The hammer is quiet, the furnace is cold
We're trading the iron for the permits we hold
A mountain of forms, a database link
Designed to make sure, there's no spaces to think
If you don't know the names, in all the boardrooms
You're just weaving the threads, of your own little tomb
And the files keep piling, a river of grey
While washing all the traces of meaning away
You want to look at the house?
(Papers, please!)
You want to get rid of the spouse?
(Papers, please!)
You want to breathe in the street?
(Papers, please!)