Custodian

CUSTODIAN
--For Grant Walter
I was interviewed last week
On public radio
A man called up with something
That I didn’t know
My name is Grant, he said
Here’s what you need to hear
I’m a custodian –
At least I was until last year

This word custodian
It means to take good care
When something might have hurt the kids
Well, I was there
For any troubled kid
I was their right hand man
The school custodian
There to lend a guiding hand

But now the jobs we did
Have all been privatized
Our lives, the public good
Sold for the lowest price
A corporation does
The cleaning work we did
They want the money
Not to help some troubled kid

I see them on the street
Down at the movie show
My kids rush up to hug me
Grant, where did you go?
Their parents say to me
The school’s just not the same
If no one cares
Custodian is just a name

Now we are standing at the edge
Of a forest of lies
Where all we hold in common
Has been privatized
Where corporations own
Every corner of our land
When everything is private
Where will freedom stand

When those who only live for profit
Work to tear this country down
All we have to stand on
Is our common ground
And only we can find
Our way back home from here
We are custodians
Of all that we hold dear

We are custodians
Of all that we hold dear