The Summer's Heavy Tidings

In a tower high in old Manhattan town A former king awaited word come down The jury sat with faces stern and set On thirty-four accounts of owing debt Not debt of gold, but secrets bought and sold A story whispered, now grown brave and bold The gavel fell, a first time in the land A guilty verdict, written by their hand The sun still rises, and the sun still sets The newsman cries of triumphs and regrets A different name, a different time and place

But the same old lines on history's weary face The wheel keeps turning, slow and then so fast The future's shadow's by the present cast Down in the south, the Texas sun beats hot Scorching the fields and every hopeful plot The mercury climbs, a fever on the land While power flickers in a trembling hand From Phoenix to the Gulf, the people pray for rain To break the heat and cool the earth again A silent crisis, not of law or state But battling nature's old and heavy fate

The sun still rises, and the sun still sets The newsman cries of triumphs and regrets A different name, a different time and place But the same old lines on history's weary face The wheel keeps turning, slow and then so fast The future's shadow's by the present cast And the banker sighs, and looks upon his charts And weighs the worries held in common hearts The price of bread, the cost to fill the tank The shifting numbers at the federal bank They talk of rates, of easing and of strain

Another verse in that old, tired refrain The sun still rises, and the sun still sets The newsman cries of triumphs and regrets A different name, a different time and place But the same old lines on history's weary face The wheel keeps turning, slow and then so fast The future's shadow's by the present cast