New Hard Time Blues

NEW HARD TIME BLUES

I’m living on a shoe-string; I’m living on pure-luck
I’m feeling like a bronco with a load too big to buck
There’s a town in eastern Oregon, a girl I left behind
If I could find a job today, Lord I’d be drinking wine

I walk these streets each morning; I know each and every crack
They take my application, but it’s just one on the stack
There’s ten men on the corner with fingers cold and numb
Waiting for a job like it was nineteen thirty-one

If I had ten dollars, I’d get a ticket home to you
I’d be long gone, no more living on these new hard-time blues

An old man near the mission with a can of orphan dimes
Says: “The only thing between you and me is this here cardboard sign”
He used to draw a paycheck ‘til the paper mill closed down
Now its bottles in a plastic sack and change up off the ground

If I had ten dollars, I’d get a ticket home to you
I’d be long gone, no more living on these new hard-time blues

I’m heading east tomorrow, won’t even say goodbye
No more hanging on a shoestring, I’ll catch luck on the fly
Honest work and decent pay are like memories from the past
These callused hands are emptier than when you held them last.

If I had ten dollars, I’d get a ticket home to you
I’d be long gone, no more living on these new hard-time blues

If I had ten dollars, I’d get a ticket home to you
I’d be long gone, no more living on these new hard-time blues

© 2010 Katherine Downing and Nathan Moore