The Cost of Doing Business

[couchgrouch]

The Cost of Doing BusinessIt was rough on Jane bein' a widow with a rowdy sonhe'd cut school and shoot their scarecrow with an old shotgunthat day he helped her push start their '78 Chevellecos she heard the border patrol had new impounds for saleshe kissed his college fund goodbye as she thumbed a thousand cashfor a Corolla that'd start in the cold and was a camel with gasthe pot-bellied guard peeled her with his eyes as he gave her the keysaid for ten minutes alone he'd tow that Chevelle for freeas the cost of doing businesslife's about give and takewe all do what we have toand then call it fatethat's the cost of doing businessnow that her husband was in heaven ev'ry compromise was hellshe fought bitter tears when her boy asked about that Chevelleand that night ravens watched from their nest in the big red barnwhen a strange car with Son-Mex plates drove up to their farmSanchez kicked down their door and cocked his steely forty-fiveand told Jane if she coughed up the key she might see dawn alivewell, a raven stole away and seemed to perch on a staras he took a bag of bills hidden in the trunk of her new caras the cost of doing businesslife's about give and takewe all do what we have toand then call it fatethat's the cost of doing businessSanchez thought he'd lucked out but he was out of luckcos Jane's boy filled his back with twenty-ought buckthey took the cash and hit dawn's highway in that carthe ravens got to keep Sanchez and that rundown farmas the cost of doing businesslife's about give and takewe all do what we have toand then call it fatethat's the cost of doing business(c)2006 Robert George