One Last Straw

when you can’t get a job and they’re callin’ you lazy
don’t know what to do and it’s drivin’ you crazy
rats in the basement, thieves in the hall
landlord comes in through a hole in the wall
with eviction papers in his trembling claw
somebody’s bound to draw one last straw

when you’re stuck down livin’ on the wrong end of town
and the police come down houndin’ around
pickin’ up the kids for playin’ hooky pool
while the heroin dealers hang around the grade school
and you’re wastin’ time waitin’ on the law
somebody’s bound to draw one last straw

when the D.A. is workin’ for the company
and the lawyer is workin’ for the legal fee
when the judge gets a salary advance
from out of the pockets of the governor’s pants
when nobody talks about what they saw
somebody’s bound to draw one last straw

when there’s bully-boys pickin’ on the passers by
and rapists waitin’ on the shadowy sly
and in the broad daylight on the edge of town
another young children’s body gets found
down by the river in a watery draw
somebody’s bound to draw one last straw

when they take away the lives of your young and your old
and they leave you to shiver in a moldering cold
with nowhere to go but the end of the line
and it’s all so legal it’s a capital crime
when you feel that noose down under your jaw
somebody’s bound to draw one last straw

you can call it Watts, you can call it Miami
you can call it Brixton, or Bristol City
you can call it Belfast or Derry Town
call it Soweto when the sun went down
but whether it be Rome or whether be Warsaw
somebody’s bound to draw one last straw
it’s only the order of a natural law
somebody’s bound to draw one last straw