Elmira Diner
By Tim Dyson

‘We used to make shit around here,
rail cars, in-ground gas tanks,
lots of tooling, decent wages
pretty good dough, a life

And this ole gal, what can I say,
went to the prom,  became a mom

For a long time,
seems like things went our way,
not like it is today,
young folks just coming up
shit outta luck’—

‘My son went to computers at Carnegie,
started a good job, poor kid
job went to Mumbai, it weren’t
nothing he did—His sister’s
doing okay, teaches third grade,
had to move hundreds of miles away’—

‘Me and Kate fully own our house,
between the two of us,
only one original hip’s left
and the legs we stand on wobble a bit—
The country’s gone to hell,
no one seems to give a shit’