The Last Train to Pontiac

The last train to Pontiac pulled into the
station, switched off the lights, and cut the engines.
But no passengers came calling,
no conductor counted tickets,
for the last train to Pontiac had been declared finished.
Somebody had decided they could save a few million to pay for that
big tax cut and that extra twelve billion
they budgeted for the Pentagon next year.
But isn't that what you wanted when you stood behind that curtain?
Isn't that what you wanted when you pulled on that lever?
Isn't that what you wanted?
Well, then you got exactly what you asked for, didn't you?
The last train to Pontiac sat rusting through the winter
while rich white men debated the future of welfare mothers.
And they said "
If a few people starve,
it's still worth the difference if it gets the lazy mothers to get a
job to feed their children.
" Then they passed a big tax break for the corporate bondholders and
a new federal subsidy for the tobacco growers and they gave away some
prime wilderness to some well-connected developers and they did away
with the agency that would have kept
them from ripping off the public trust.
But isn't that what you wanted when you stood behind that curtain?
Isn't that what you wanted when you voted your conscience?
Isn't that what you wanted?
Well, then you got exactly what you asked for, didn't you?
The last train to Pontiac, the last train to Montreal,
the last train to Milwaukee, the last train through St.
Albans were quieted forever to pay for one superbomber,
or just to please some banker who never travels without his
chauffer or gives a dime when his
tanker kills a billion birds and fishes.
He won't watch them close the station,
he won't watch them shut the lights off;
he's too busy buying politicians,
so they can afford the advertising so they can
afford to tell you how much they're doing for you.
But isn't that what you wanted when you stood behind that curtain?
Isn't that what you wanted when you pulled on that lever?
Isn't that what you wanted when you voted your conscience?
Isn't that what you wanted?
Well, then you got exactly what you asked for, didn't you?