This Working Life

Workers line down the dark steel above

Like crows against the barren skies

Lunchtime whistle blows...

Redhead Jimmy says this is too much

Low wages, no money, and lies

But his little girl at home,

Some bright angel in the cold-

Means more of this working life

This working life.

See they strip the ground of its coal

Big machines eat and are never full,

And men have to work.

Jimmy sees the men come from the hole

Eyes black, faces coal dark and dull

Their souls ragged with dirt.

But his girl, a vision in white,

Means more of the working life,

This working life.

Tonight he'll comb the tangles from her hair

Watch her play with her dolls,

Sit silent while the night flows-

And dream of a night sky full of stars,

And flowers where his girl rolls,

Long hair streaming like smoke-

He knows he can't go, but she can,

Cause there has to more than

This working life

This working life.

Ash Wednesday

Jeremiah found the bottle today

The bottle today

That Susan had emptied since noon

Said Susan I thought you'd quit

She just said, "Soon,"

He said, "How much longer,

How much longer

I can't swim, can't breathe in your flood?"

She whispered "the angels are gone

40 days we've got to be good-

"Today the wind shook a thousand whispers

From the trees-

The saints in the park are gone

Flown like birds across these gray skies

Close your eyes my baby, close your mouth

There is not much more to say

I know you wanted so much more

On this Ash Wednesday"

He laid his head on his hands

On his hands

But couldn't find the words to pray

Said, "We've been throught this before,"

There's not much left to say."

She said, "This is my cross to bear

Cross to bear

You've been here way too long.

This time in the desert is mine

And has been all along."