Not a King

(Not a king)
Just a man we hired

Six a.m. at the clinic door
Grandma Ruth with her folding chair
Numbered ticket in her fist
Forty people waiting there
Sirens wail down the avenue
Twelve black cars and a waving hand
Somebody's nurse is stuck in traffic
Nobody here can understand

She doesn't shout, she doesn't march
She just says it to the screen

Not a king (not a king!)
Just a man we hired
Not a king (not a king!)
And the contract can expire

Every chair you sit on was built by us
Not a king
Hired! (not a king)
Hired! (not a king)

Ruth has voted fourteen times
Walked three miles to do it twice
Kept the ink stain on her finger
Like a ring she wore with pride
Now they talk about a longer term
Like a landlord raising rent
She says, "Son, I've outlived presidents
And I'm not finished with this one yet"

She doesn't shout, she doesn't march
She just says it to the screen

Not a king (not a king!)
Just a man we hired
Not a king (not a king!)
And the contract can expire

Every chair you sit on was built by us
Not a king

Love the land and watch the chair
Those were never the same thing
The ones who carry the country
Are standing in this line

Ticket forty-one (not a king)
Forty-one and still in line (not a king)

Not a king (not a king!)
Just a man we hired
Not a king (not a king!)
And the contract can expire

Every road you ride on was paid by us
Not a king

Number forty-one
Your turn, Ruth