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Poverty

from RED DOLLARS by Red Dollars

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about

The lyrics to this track are built around a poem by Charles Bukowski called..Poverty. The first 4 stanzas of his poem appear as the first words of my first four stanzas yet I extend them and according to copyright law and fair use the song becomes mine. I don't know if i agree but I do know that this song is now mine...but thanks to Chuck. Thanks old fellow.

lyrics

It is the man you’ve never seen who knows the switches
Keeps you going or what happens when you stop
He isn’t out on the streets or even cold
In the buildings or in the shelter rifling the lost and found
No one who has ever looked hard enough
ever walks away empty handed
Not in the stadiums with the slave gladiators
Or if he’s there he’s hard to recognize
I’ve missed him somehow these last few weeks
But it wasn’t for lack of trying
He isn’t one of our president’s favorite men
Or stateswomen or actor’s with a beard and an academy statue
Apologizing for how well they play the fool
I wonder if he’s there behind the refinery tanks
Rolling a cigarette with blackened fingertips
And two lungs full of Saudi gold
I walk down the streets head down counting scuffles
Past drugstores and hospitals and other places where dying is done
Theatres and cafes selling atmosphere
I wonder if he’s there warming himself
Over a borrowed coffee or stolen beer
It is the man, it is the man, it is the man
You’ve never seen who knows the switches
Who keeps you going or what happens when you stop

credits

from RED DOLLARS, released November 17, 2014

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about

Red Dollars Mountain Rest, South Carolina

Daniel E. Weddle was born in Charleston, SC, raised in Pittsburgh, PA , and now lives in a holler in South Carolina.

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