(You Tube video)
Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag
on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands
free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched
so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't
make it here anymore
That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it
paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We
can't make it here anymore
See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock?
They're just
gonna sit there till 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 'less 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 living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a
drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how
far five fifteen an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your
stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore
High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures 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 it's way too late to just say no
You
can't make it here anymore
Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
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 won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the damn little war
And
we can't make it here anymore
Will work for food
Will 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
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 it here anymore
And 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 paper
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 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
Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry
Categories: Music, Signs of the Apocalypse, Video, YouTube
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