Down at the bus stop, a cleaning lady waits in the exhaust and gnats.

She’s growling inside that Red Mountain mansion

about the rabble and the election. The reddening face. The sneering lip.

She grinds her teeth on the remains of the smog-choked, old-time

girls she scrambled over and above. The velvet cover

on that hard-edged Jones Valley twang starts to slip.

Don’t call her a redneck;

she’s your sister.

You ain’t no better than her,

or anybody else.

When she struggles,

you struggle with her.

If you go against your sister,

you go against yourself.

Skyline goes pink beyond the warehouse wall. The crickets

start to fiddling. We grab our puny paystubs,

drag the dying, aching day to the truck.

Down the line, E pulls on his wave cap, pries off his boots,

groans, and sparks a blunt. I can smell the whiskey

on Jim’s mustache, talking that same old junk.

Don’t call him a thug;

he’s your brother.

You ain’t no better than him,

or anybody else.

When he struggles,

you struggle with him.

If you go against your brother, boy,

you go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Outside the punk show, down a dark sidestreet, in the

San Francisco of the Smokies, they try to bum a light.

He shakes his head, and they shuffle past.

He smokes, and cocks his head at their faded hair-dye and baggy clothes,

and groans in his Midwestern drone, "At least back home,

poor people have the dignity to pull up their pants."

I’m like, listen here, son,

Don’t call them trash;

they’re my kinfolk.

You ain’t no better than them,

or anybody else.

When they struggle,

you struggle with them.

If you go against my kinfolk, hoss,

you go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Like a dog gnawing off its tail.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Like a saw cutting off its cord.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Don’t go against yourself.

Like the desperate denying the sweet grace of the Lord.