We Can't Make It Here Any More

[KG]

We Can't Make It Here Any More
By JAMES McMURTRY

There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
One leg missing and both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The VA budget's just stretched too thin
And now there's more coming back from the mideast war
We can't make it here any more

The big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and then closed the doors
We can't make it here any more

See those pallets piled up on the loading dock
they're just gonna set there til they rot
cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
just busted concrete and rusted tracks
empty storefronts around the square
there's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
you don't come down here unless you're looking to score
we can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
the tip jar's light and the register's low
the bartender don't have much to say
the regular crowd gets thinner each day
some have maxed out all their credit cards
some are working two jobs and livin' in cars
minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for drink
if you gotta have proof just try it yourself mr CEO
see how far $5.15 an hour will go
take a part time job at one of your stores
bet you can't make it here anymore

There's a high school girl with bourgeois dream
just like the pictuers in the magazine
she found on the floor of the laundromat
a woman with kids can forget all that
if she comes up pregnant what'll she do?
forget the career, forget about school
can she live on faith? live on hope?
high on jesus or hooked on dope
when its way too late to just say no
you can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart stores
just like the ones we made before
'cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
or the shape of their eyes or the shape i'm in
should i hate em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
all lily white and squeaky clean
they've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids don't bleed
their kids don't bleed in their damn little war
and we can't make it here anymore

will work for food and die for oil
will kill for power and to us the spoils
the billionaires get to pay less tax
the working poor get to fall through the cracks
so let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
let em eat shit, whatever it takes
they can join the Air Force or join the Corps
if they can't make here anymore

So that's how it is, that's what we got
if the president wants to admit it or not
you can read it in the papers, read it on the wall
hear it on the wind if you're listening at all
get out of that limo, look us in the eye
call us on the cell phone tell us all why

In Dayton Ohio or Portland Maine
or on a cotton gin out on the great high plains
that's done closed down along with the school
and the hospital and the swimming pool
dust devils dance in the noonday heat
there's rats in the alley and trash in the street
gang graffiti on a boxcar door
we can't make it here anymore

From James McMurtry's fantastic new CD Childish Things.

[tk2kewl]

1. I still have one extra ticket to see James McMurtry Sun 10/23 in NYC

anyone who is interested PM me :)

[gmoney]

2. Go see James...

Saw him last Sunday and what a show... right in Dayton Ohio, too... the crowd actually clapped when he name-checked Dayton, but it just seemed sad to me that we're singled out in a song like this one. Especially in light of the Delphi Phiasco about to unfold here, where thousands of jobs in our area are going to be shipped to Mexico or China or someplace because apparently "We Can't Make it Here Anymore."

Anyway, James is not the most glamorous performer around (makes Steve Earle look like Justin Timberlake) but he's a helluva singer, guitarist, and songwriter, and it's a powerful night of music. Somebody should use tk2kewl's ticket tomorrow for sure.

I got some nice photos of James and the guys on stage... if anyone's interested to see, please PM me for the URL.

[GOPisEvil]

3. I wish I could take you up on that.

x(