When You're Poor

As my memory of 1965 is replaced by thoughts of the 2005 devastation left by Hurricane Katrina, I realize the year marked a turning point in world history.  Climate change was here, it was a new time now.  To be poor in 2005 was to be at the mercy of all the hurricanes, economic, cultural, and natural.  To be poor in 1965, if you were white, was hard but not impossible.  

When You’re Poor

Work you, work you like a slave.
Work you, work you like a slave.
Take it or leave it, dollar for a day.
Work you, work you just like a slave

Blame you, you don’t wanna know.
Storm comin’ in, got nowhere to go. 
Try to get out of the rain, they kick you out the door,
then blame you for just being poor. 

Ain’t no money in your pocket  
when you’re poor.  When you’re poor,
ain’t nothing in your pocket. 
When you’re poor
ain’t a dollar in your wallet,
when you’re poor.  When you’re poor
got nothing in your pocket.
When you’re poor 
you gotta different way of walkin’,
a different way of talkin’
when you’re poor... when you’re poor.

So tired of the voices in my head.
So down I’m lookin’ up through the floor.
Make a life is a lot like grabbin’ at the wind.
So tired, tired of being poor.

Ain’t no money in your pocket  
when you’re poor.  When you’re poor
ain’t nothing in your pocket, 
when you’re poor.

Ain’t a dollar in your wallet
when you’re poor.  When you’re poor,
y’ got nothing in your pocket
when you’re poor. 
You gotta different way of walkin’,
a different way of talkin’
when you’re poor, when you’re poor.

Night time, they’re comin back again.
Don’t fight, can’t take it anymore.
When you hear the footsteps
even up the score.
There’s nothin’ you won’t do
when you’re tired of being poor.

Copyright © 2005, 2014 by David Larstein, all rights reserved.

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