LIKE A ROLLING STONE by BOB DYLAN. Poem by Craig Kirchner.

Note from author to editor:
Elon Musk is trashing social security here in the US. It is not hard to envision total dystopia.
 

                            Once upon a time you dressed so fine,

                 Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?

We sold our place needed the cash to eat.

We were lucky on the street, a family

with a large tent under a remote bridge took us in.

They had been doing well with a business

they had built over years, had a beautiful home

with a pool, a dog and two cars.
 

It was explained to them if they took in a partner,

they would be alright with the government,

taxes, regulations, but if not…. well.

We lost our retirement savings in the crash,

when they trashed social security,

we sold the condo, easy sale, the rich were richer.
 

          He’s not selling any alibis,

    as you stare into the vacuum of his eyes

     and say do you want to make a deal?
 

We thought we could get by for a while,

get a cheap place, eat basics, but they took

the equity, called it a selling fee.

Now every evening we sit around a campfire,

talk of the good years, tell stories of the Republic,

pretend that perhaps a revolution will come.
 

The news is the military hunting down insurgents.

The homeless are feared to be radicals, put in camps.

Oligarchs control the money, the jobs, everything.

The two daughters miss soccer and basketball,

even their school uniforms, whenever I scavenge now,

I try to bring them back a new book that didn’t burn.
 

        How does it feel, how does it feel?

   To be without a home, like a complete unknown,

                like a rolling stone
 

Stereo Story 841
 

See also pieces about Like A Rolling Stone by Colin Ritchie and Vin M.