Ramblin' Bob Dylan Blues
Why does the sun dry up so many scattered tears
Slipping down the coarse cheek of a million hushed fears
Where no one is scalded though the searing fog clears
While prayers are mutely spoken even as the end nears
...We shatter and scrape on demented knees
Blindly begging for mercy as it silently flees
Searching listlessly for salvation drowned in the breeze
That spits at the soft rose suffocated by a wheeze
...I know now what I need never have known
Of hope that was trampled before it had flown
Into a wasted sky filled with hate that could drown
The giggling of the crowd and the crying of the clown
...A hope so fragile that its wings were of brittle glass
Ripping the veneer off the sewers of class
Twisting the fabric of the weighed and costed mass
Who numbly waited hoping that it too may pass
...For when shards of that hope in all hearts scurries away
To a darkness where crowded night is emptied off the heaving tray
'Tis then when sewn eyes shall behold that doleful day
When all shall tear at each other while on demented knees we still shall pray
...For a lifting of the veil of that wilful deceit
That's wrapped up in a flag swollen with conceit
While the limbs splinter in the claw of a winner's defeat
Yet still the drums roll for the ill-fated souls chose never to retreat
...From that drenched battle-ground where blood flows through a sieve
And love's lost song plaintively begs for a reprieve
From eternal loss which into raw emotion does cleave
Only to slip through the fingers and like grains of sand, leave
for Bob Dylan
1.
We shall always be many more!
We shall always be many more,
we who roast in your designer factories,
our brows dripping with our salty sweat,
we who may forgive but shall never forget.
We shall always be many more,
we who reek of cheap moonshine,
we who stagger and often stumble,
we whose stomachs never cease to rumble.
We shall always be many more,
we who polish your fine bone china,
we whose pay gets docked if one cup is chipped,
we who fight your wars, and off to battle get shipped.
We shall always be many more,
we who clean up after your pretty children,
we whose kids are hungry, naked and get swept,
into the bowels of desolation, as mothers' tears are wept.
We shall always be many more,
we who do your dirty work each day,
we who you treat like vermin, foul and rotten,
we whose trampled dignity is always forgotten.
We shall always be many more,
we who will rise up and seize the light of hope,
and reclaim what is ours for our daughters and sons,
though we will always be in the cross-hairs of your guns.
We shall always be many more,
and there shall be many more of us still to come,
to rid you of your smug arrogance and endless greed,
for we too have children whom we have to feed.
We shall always be many more,
'and the meek shall inherit the earth',
or something like that though we no longer care,
for we shall rise up one day to demand our rightful share.
We shall always be many more!
2.
The markets are down 2 & a quarter %.
banish the hubris,
toss away the choice words,
spoken by rotten broken tongues,
silence the chorus of appalled shock.
shred the sermons,
burn down the gory edifices,
the churches, mosques, temples,
for mutedly hushed their Gods they mock.
drain the sewage,
flush away the insidious odour,
seeping up from malls, homes, carnivals,
put them in a closet and smelt the key to the lock.
shut it all off,
turn out the lights,
pull the damned plug,
but hold onto that blue-chip stock.
3.
Dedicated to the countless South Africans who gave their lives for freedom and democracy.
Remember us when you pass this way.
we who fell,
who bled,
remember us when you pass this way,
we who fell so that countless others may stand,
we who bore the brunt of the oppressor's hand.
Remember us when you pass this way,
leave a flower or two as you pass along,
sing! sing for us a joyous & spirited song.
Remember us when you pass this way,
we who fell,
who bled,
remember us when you pass this way.
Remember us in your tomorrows,
as you remember us today.