In the moment, in between the dark and the light
The dull ache, the pang of pain behind your eyes from that glaring white
Up the hill, walking the long way home tonight
While you think of fields and flying kites,
And begging your brother to measure your height
In shining armor, a stallion-riding knight
Now you straighten your shoulders because you never stand upright
Wondering when’s the last time you stood up for something right
You tell them that back in the South, you couldn’t wait to get out
Drink in the pouring rain because you’ve dried in a drought
Loaded up your pickup, even sold your couch
Drove thousands of miles with the windows down,
Music drowns memories of a town, of eyes too hazel to be brown
Sinks even the deepest of doubts, sands over the roughest of grouts
As a kid you’d watch that clock ticking,
Wishing to catch those little hands twitching
Praying they’d speed up the time they were spitting
Minutes slipping, newspaper clippings
Read the entire thing in just one sitting,
Hoping there’s something new in the printing
But who were you kidding?
And you tell them now that back in the Midwest,
From sun up, you labored in distress
Toiled until the sun went down in painful protest
Worked land never blessed, felt the pang in your chest
Watching your father do his best, tumultuous time he’d invest
Wiping sweat, never time to rest with the vultures flying overhead
Stories you tell while you sip from your IPA can,
If only they could see you now, working for the rich man
Not a callous on your hand, ain’t got a physical demand
Complain about the traffic while you drive your luxury sedan
Chasing down a dollar, but it already outran,
You and the bureaucratic shit you've already began
At the suit and tie’s command, was this ever your plan?
You slur and tell them about falling leaves, about home back East
How you don’t miss it in the least, heard the rent’s increased
But you can’t remember what it’s like to feel dirt under your feet
To swing an axe into a tree, your brow greased in the summer heat
On the TV, you watched the elite, working class opinion gone obsolete
And your mother refuses to eat, prayers she repeats
While you scrubbed your collar in the bathroom sink,
Scrubbed it until the blue would cease
Now you tell everyone about the work you’re doing,
The goals you’re pursuing, choking on the words you’re spewing
About the liquid you’re accruing and the person you’re screwing
And after you’ve done all your wooing, all your story misconstruing
About all you’re producing at your job computing
You think faintly of the abilities you’re losing,
Skills reducing, privilege consuming, truth-refusing
Cheap thrills no longer feel amusing
Someone once said, a country boy can survive
But as you lie to yourself while you lie awake at night
You wonder if that someone ever lived in this life -
Navigated this robotic dystopia so contrived,
Full of anecdotal rules that to some don’t apply
With values that don’t align, there’s no one’s that money can’t buy
Even yours you’ve compromised,
For a man you don’t think that you’re anything alike
A ladder you’re not even dying to climb
So you dream of the wind and talking to your sister,
Ask her if she’ll come visit you in the winter
Pray she won’t notice how your spine has splintered
Or wonder when your voice became a whisper
Your heels free of blisters, your spirit just a flicker
Against the flame you once held, your fire’s grown dimmer
Will you absolve yourself and wash your hands,
Like Peter Pan in Neverland,
Tell everyone else they don’t understand,
That you’ll slow down once you’ve fulfilled your plans
Once so grand, now staggering against the weight of demand
Sell, advertise, code, retrieve, and scan
Stay and withstand more than you feel you can
All in pursuit of working for the rich man