Hello in there
You seem to be much older than when we first met
With a cold frown
Where did you get it?
Where on earth have you been?
Well, I went to a mosque that was holey from bullets
I went to a church that slaughtered heathens in their psalms
I went for entertainment and got blood flying from chain saws
I tuned up some music, it was about bitches and whores
I went to the park and saw shriveled old hobos
I looked in the alleys and saw turd piles and rats.
There’s millions of homeless in the old USA
And it’s hard, damned hard and gonna get harder
Hard times for one another.
Who did you meet out there?
And what are their stories?
Are they about splattered dreams then, and lost glories?
I met hard-working families falling into ruin
I saw predatory creditors draining their lives.
I saw a fraction of the people drowning in luxuries
I saw bankruptcies surging and fat-cat laws to stop relief
I met jiving drug dealers bedecked in gold crosses
I saw preachers hoarding money and their wives buying shoes
I saw millions of cheap laborers, none taxpaying citizens
And there are war profiteers getting richer and richer
Millions dying from the death that they sell.
And it’s hard, damned hard, and gonna get harder, brother
Hard times for one another.
Well, what did you hear, maybe something
To give us a saving clue?
What did you hear that could reasonably be true?
I did listen for insight and got cacophony from liars
I heard truth shamed and ridiculed from a world full of salesmen
I heard lonely cries from champions in jail cells
I heard official rhetoric so musty it smelled like a shroud
I heard clichés booming to overcome any creation
I heard noise screaming and shrieking to obliterate blessed quiet
I heard the talentless and witless stomping their way
And there is starving and dying and raping each moment
In a world insane with dogma wars that betray their every creed
The five largest world powers are the biggest arms dealers
And it’s hard, damned hard, and gonna get harder
Hard times for one another
Then what of the future from these awful experiences?
What will you do now, just keep up appearances?
Or are there some assurances?
None … but …
I will tell you my direction, I’m going for corrections
For the world and for me, and to find the right direction.
If it’s tough, then it’ll confirm that there’s many a complexion
To know and understand to overcome all the perplexion
That comes from alienation, to be cured through introspection
And finding that God presence inside us for inspection
And to guide us each moment in our rainbow of affections
May we go out in the world, see and hear and speak
Find God and share with all who seek.
Hard times are falling.
No times for the meek.
Hard Times For One Another
By Jim Cleveland, with the Celestial Artisans And with inspiration from Bob Dylan
Website designed by Gwendolyn Cleveland
Web-Master/Designer: Hensel Graphics
© Jim Cleveland 2017