Your Grandfather's Ghost

[Verse 1] The screen is black. The mouse is cold. My portfolio is gettin' old. Another e-mail, "thanks, but no." Got nowhere left to go. I sit here in the digital gloom In what used to be my work-from-home room. And I feel a chill I can't explain Like a whisper through the rain. [Chorus] Is that your hand, there, on the pane? Your knuckles white with frost and pain? Did you stand like this, Lost and afraid, When the water frame stole your trade? Oh, your grandfather's ghost... stands with me. [Verse 2] The factory man, He's standin' here. I can smell the oil and fear. He's holdin' out his pink slip blues And his worn-out steel-toed shoes. He just nods, his face is grim That T.A.A. shuffle didn't work for him. He says, "That 'promise' is a lie. They just told it with a suit and tie." [Chorus] Is that your face, in the monitor's sheen? A twenty-year man for a dead machine? Did you stand like this, Used and betrayed, When the "global market" stole your trade? Oh, your grandfather's ghost... lives in me. [Bridge] And the trucker pulls his lonely rig Into the driveway of my head. He says, "That ghost rig, clean and big, It's gonna eat 'til we're all fed... ...to the code." And we're all here. The craftsman, and the engineer, The clerk, the driver... All of us... just ghosts. [Guitar Solo] [Chorus] Are we all just shadows In their history book? The human cost they overlooked? The weaver's cry, The factory's rust, Is in this new "digital dust." Oh, your grandfather's ghost... Your father's ghost... They're all right here... inside of me. [Outro] The screen is black. The mouse is cold. It's the oldest story ever told. © 2026 The Shady River Bard. All rights reserved.