"Mother Jones" lyrics

You cough it up and off to work you go
You hate to say it but you told me so
A jaw wired shut will work best
A city flickers out in the west

You don't need to buy back the street
But you better learn to work for what you eat
The city shakes the dust tooth by tooth
The scab cuts it out at the root

The dirt in your eye is the thing that decides
If this will live or die
Still, you wouldn't know!
If love is the thing that you need
Or the thing with hurt in its eyes

You cough it up and off to work it goes
They always take the gun over the rose
Grief's the thing that scratches from inside
And I'd hate to be the one that's left behind

A strike, a riot, the rush that it brings
The Slot, the crash, the sleep of all things
To work, to bed, a tendon too tight
A spit, a wheeze, and skin in the fight

The love in the eyes of your family decides
If you will live or die
Did you think I wouldn't know?
If work is the thing that you need
Or the thing with hungry eyes

The love in the eyes of this awful design
Means you work until you die
Do you think you're Mother Jones?
If work is the thing that you need
And Or the thing with scales on its eyes