Salt Of The Earth

let's drink
to the hard working people
let's drink
to the lowly of birth
raise your glass
to the good and the evil
let's drink
to the salt of the earth
say a prayer for
the common foot soldier
spare a thought
for his back-breaking work
say a prayer for
his wife and his children
who burn the fires
and who still till the earth
and when i search
a faceless crowd
a swirling mass of gray
and black and white
they don't look real to me
in fact they look so strange

raise your glass
to the hard working people
let's drink
to the uncounted heads
let's think
of the wavering millions
who need leaders
but get gamblers instead
spare a thought
for the stay-at-home voter
his empty eyes gaze
at strange beauty shows
and a parade of
the gray-suited grafters
a choice of cancer or polio
and when i look
in the faceless crowd
a swirling mass of gray
and black and white
they don't look real to me
don't they look so strange

let's drink
to the hard working people
let's think
of the lowly of birth
spare a thought
for the rag taggy people
let's drink
to the salt of the earth


let's drink to the hard working people
let's drink to the salt of the earth
let's drink to the two thousand million
let's think of the humble of birth

--jagger/richards
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Joan Baez
Foley Square, NYC (Occupy Wall Street)
11/11/11