I'm standing in the little patch of backyard
at the house that union wages bought
there's a web of power lines, telephone, TV cable
exiting and entering our domain. Technology
hooks up here, and beyond this sustains skybuses
bound for landings at the port.
Before all this I praise the Lord I was born
with a wooden spoon in my hand
so I knew how to care for myself
and stir up trouble for others when I could.
Non dimentica!- give thanks for the Fifties
when there were so few greenbacks
we relied on ourselves or did without.
Be grateful for the dollar six-fifty in '67
anything less than sixteen fifty now
is less than a living wage. No one dare dispute it.
Understand we came to this world
naked and unashamed but the Local
shall bargain for us a Uniform Allowance.
Bow down to the setting sun and rise
before dawn. There are Shift Differentials
coming from these Acts of God.
Give it up in those quarrelsome siciliano
and abruzzése 'dialectics' all the grievances
they have laid on you day after livelong day.
Praise the organization that we have and stand up,
because the opposition holds onto its arrogance
and bends only slightly.