Words and music by John Kay You see that endless line? They're victims of our time Who's only crime was to bank on their fathers dreams To work hard all your life, to raise your family with your wife And to survive all the heartaches and bad breaks fate may bring But dreams are seldom real and an aching heart won't heal Standing in a line for a meal at a strangers door As night begins to fall, they lay down in the hall of the mission Of the Salvation Army that is loosing the war And they dream of home, where someone's waitin' Waitin' by the phone at the end of their rope But come early dawn as dreams are fading They're hanging by a slender thread of hope Now it's closing time again, she turns her collar to the wind Goes running in the rain to a friend on the way back home To hold the only joy the world did not destroy A laughing little brown eyed boy she calls her own Though he leads her by the hand and tries to be her little man He's really still too young to understand her quiet fears Oh bills weigh on her mind and she hates her daily grind 'Cause time for romance was impossible to find these last few years Now they're goin' home, where no one's waiting Weary to the bone, she tries to cope Sitting there alone, while slowly fading She rocks to sleep her slender thread of hope The news comes on at ten, the public servant will explain How pouring water on the drowning little man will solve the mess To save our way of life and to help us all survive Those with nothing will now have to stay alive on even less And as he spoke these words of wisdom Like a cruel joke beyond his scope With just one stroke from his fountain pen He cut the last and final thread of hope ?‚?© 1984 Rambunctious Music (ASCAP)