The Groaning Wheel

The Federal man in his clean, pressed suit Says he's pulling the fever right out by the root. He whispers a number, a point up or down, And the price of the bread changes all over town. The gas pump it clicks like a worried man's heart, Folks watchin' their savings get torn all apart, They say it's to stop the whole engine from burnin', But it feels like a lesson nobody is learnin'. Oh, the headlines they holler, the screens they all glow,

But it's the same weary river with a different flow. I heard this tale in the dust, heard it sung in the steel, It's just the turning of another great, groaning wheel. Down on the Potomac, the voices are loud, A bill for the future gets lost in the crowd. One side says it's freedom, the other says cost, And the trust of the people is what's truly lost. They draw their hard lines in the marble and stone, And leave every working man feeling alone,

Debating the weather while the hurricane roars, And locking the windows and barring the doors. Oh, the headlines they holler, the screens they all glow, But it's the same weary river with a different flow. I heard this tale in the dust, heard it sung in the steel, It's just the turning of another great, groaning wheel. From the quill to the telegraph, the screen to the sky, We built thinking machines and we never asked why. Now they learn and they reason in shadows and code,

And we wonder if we're lightening or adding to the load. They promise a future of ease and of grace, But I see the same worry on every new face. Oh, the headlines they holler, the screens they all glow, But it's the same weary river with a different flow. I heard this tale in the dust, heard it sung in the steel, It's just the turning of another great, groaning wheel.