A Heart for Change
October 14, 2003
Los Angeles, California
I want to try
But I don’t want to try so hard
That I can’t try again tomorrow
I want change
I want change for people without homes
Without jobs or cars or bus tokens
Without a way to get to work when there’s a bus strike
For the guy who’s boss won’t understand
As he arrives in his Mercedes Benz
Why the other guy misses work
Or arrives late
Or what he thought when the bus didn’t come
Do I walk? Or do I run?
Do I even try?
Or will I try so hard
I won’t want to try again tomorrow?
I want change
I want change for the girl who misses school
And misses friends
And misses the home she used to live in
I want change
I want change for the mother without a kitchen
Who wants dinner on the table at seven
Or maybe eight
But tonight it doesn’t matter
There is no kitchen table
No food to put upon it
And the family wouldn’t make it if there was
And she wants to try
To teach her daughter to cook
Her son to stay out of trouble
Her husband that it’s okay to fail
As long as you try again tomorrow
I want change
I want change for the immigrant
As the drone of the machine
Becomes as familiar as her heart beat
Cutting fabric; clipping threads
She works into the night
Forgetting the face of her own child
The place that is her mother country
Working long and hard and never seeing
The face of the person who buys these clothes
Knowing that to make ends meet
She has to try
To try very, very hard
Never knowing where to find the energy to try again tomorrow
I want change
I want change for the school boy who’s woken at 5 a.m.
Or maybe a quarter ‘till
He takes a hike
He takes a train
And he takes the laughter
Hurled by peers who don’t understand
How badly he’s shaken
Or that his “new home” in the city
Is really the sidewalk
The sidewalk of the stench he carries
The sidewalk he shares with rats and cockroaches
And a toothless drunkard who swears
Where no one cares
And no one hears when you cry for help
And no one sees your tears
And no one tells you to try
When you’ve tried a hundred times
It’s hard to have hope for tomorrow
I want change
