The trouble with our state
        was not civil disobedience
        which in any case was hesitant and rare.

        Civil disobedience was rare as kidney stone
        No, rarer; it was disappearing like immigrant's disease.

        You've heard of a war on cancer?
        There is no war like the plague of media
        There is no war like routine
        There is no war like 3 square meals
        There is no war like a prevailing wind.

        It flows softly; whispers
        don't rock the boat!
        The sails obey, the ship of state rolls on.

        The trouble with our state
        -we learned only afterward
        when the dead resembled the living who resembled the dead
        and civil virtue shone like paint on tin
        and tin citizens and tin soldiers marched to the common whip

        -our trouble
        the trouble with our state
        with our state of soul
        our state of siege-
        was
        Civil
        Obedience.

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...