Hard Rock

HARD ROCK

Living in the shadows of the Vegas neon glow,

Sleeping where the tourists never even wanna go.

Hard Rock shining bright while my pockets stayed thin,

Just another lost soul trying to find a way to win.

Sat beside a gambling machine shaped like a bulldozer blade,

Watched people feed it money and walk away afraid.

Then the coins would start falling after they were gone,

A hundred fifty dollars later, I was still hanging on.

Running a front-end loader under desert skies,

Hundred-fifteen degrees outside.

Ten hours a day, six days every week,

Working for a future I was struggling to reach.

Cold water every hour, air-conditioned cab,

Thirty-six an hour was the best I'd ever had.

Almost eleven months of sweat, dust, and stone,

For the first time in a while I wasn't all alone.

A church man bought my ticket when my money all ran dry,

Said, "Son, don't walk that desert, you might not survive."

So I headed west with nothing but a prayer,

And somehow found Boulder with a whole new life there.

Thirty homeless people, but we watched each other's backs,

Sharing what we had while the world cut us slack.

Kids got fed first, that's the way it was,

We didn't have much, but we had each other's love.

Hitched across the mountains, watched the valleys roll,

Pushed boulders down the hillsides just to watch them go.

River by the roadside singing all day long,

The mountains were my church and the water was my song.

A hook, a line, a worm turned over from a stone,

Catch a couple fish and make a supper of my own.

Started every campfire with a flint and steady hand,

Learning how to live off the river and the land.