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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Fast Day 141 February 11 2010 {Sheriff Sale}




My father said the best things
are those you cannot buy:
good woman, kids, and faithful friends
...but keep your powder dry.

At the sheriff's sale, the sheriff's sale, there is a lot of talk.
They kiss your hands and dry your tears - as you do foreclosure walk.
"Dead Man Walking", goes the buzz, dead folks walking through.
They killed them dead at Matewan, and they shall kill us, too.


Money's king, and if you ain't
got none, you're a debtor.
Invest in Gold, they always said,
but Pa said Ammo's better.

At the sheriff's sale, the sheriff's sale, there is a lot of talk.
They kiss your hands and dry your tears - as you do foreclosure walk.
"Dead Man Walking", goes the buzz, dead folks walking through.
They killed them dead at Matewan, and they shall kill me, too.


Saw my daughter looking at
her children through her tears;
I've been at war for all my life,
we'll be at war through theirs!

At the sheriff's sale, the sheriff's sale, there is a lot of talk.
They kiss your hands and dry your tears - as you do foreclosure walk.
"Dead Man Walking", goes the buzz, dead folks walking through.
They killed them dead at Matewan, and they shall kill you, too.




4 comments:

Ruth said...

Could be a Woody Guthrie song.

Montag said...

Yes, it could be.

His songs are part of our Imagery of the Great Depression.

We don't have much Imagery of our time...there are no Steinbecks writing, no well known protest songs...the media keeps everything quiet...
Where are the songs and movie and novels of our suffering?

Time to get 'er done.

Ruth said...

We need them songs. We need to keep writing stories. We need to keep giving expression. Alexander McQueen and anyone who can't face it is not the song we need.

Last year after an ENG department faculty meeting reading the death throes of the university when I came back to my office and felt the weight of how everything was changing, I was debilitated for almost 24 hours. Then I started talking to students, advisees. I recognized in our field - the writing - there was the place to get it out. We'd need writers more than ever! Let the world go to hell if it's bent on it, we will write about it!

It sounds utterly ridiculous. But so it must be if we can't fix things. We can live it out, sing it, speak it. Fix what we can around here.

Carry on, McDuff.

Montag said...

What a great and inspired comment!

It's what I have been feeling for a while: we have the ability to create the world, and we choose the stories.

Write it, draw it, live it! - it's all up to us!