Dear Dr. Watson, there's no mystery here. The focus is elementary.
From whence the homeless stem is the nation's concern and worry.
They are in part the folks, who worked industry known as "heavy",
These are the people whose unlikely dream home is a 1968 Chevy.

The cars back then were enormous, all in the U.S. assembled,
Much like we, as a nation, saw ourselves and wanted to resemble.
Big and plushy and arrogant, we turned 'em out, quick as the devil,
Never realizing they'd be home someday, as an ersatz split level.

Those were the years when everything we blithely made so bold,
Right here in the U.S. and ‘round the world was very quickly sold.
So people could work on assembly lines, as had many forebears,
A part of the American dream with so few worries and cares!

They banded together in unions, higher wages were their target,
And thereby, all the while, priced themselves right out of the market.
The very salary they earned there on the assembly line,
Was providing them with "luxuries", but only on borrowed time.

The industrial revolution has simply passed these folks on by,
And just like the farmers before them they have got to quickly try
To learn a skill that's in demand and that our society is needing,
The trouble is, it's knowledge, which years before needs seeding.

So the U.S. is in a horserace. We will need to turn it around,
Before our once proud ship of state sails right up on the ground.
The cars we drive must be made here, or we’ll face the worst we fear.
To the poorhouse we’ll in union walk. Elementary, Watson, my dear!

 Copyright © 2012 by Frank Koerner