When I was 16 and done

Cleaning out his horse stalls

Mr. Sodie Hampton said,

"Son, don't never work for less than

$1.50 an hour the rest of your life."

Momma who grew up choppin and pickin

Cotton said it a different way,

"A hard day's work deserves a

A good day's pay."

Momma also said,"You ain't any better

Than anyone else, but nobody's

Better than you either."

My Tennessee Momma also said,

"Son, your word is your bond and

A man looks after those weaker than him."

I learned as a man that children come first.

Syd and Sam taught me love

I'd never known.

We are all children of the same God

Breathed to life with the spark of

The Divine.

That's all why it ain't workin today.

We forgot all that.

We ain't all individual robots

With the strongest devouring the weakest.

And too many never worked for

Mr. Sodie Hampton and learned there's a

Floor beneath which we will not work

Indignities we will not bear

And disrespect we won't accept.

And our children deserve joy and freedom

And even skittles on a summer night

No matter their color or their clothes.

Too many of us got it ***-backwards

We make up all kind of reasons to

Hate and fight and **** and some

Even try to justify reape and ******

When Momma and Mr. Sodie Hampton said

It so different so long ago

In Tennessee and Missouri.