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Josh Shepard’s zine CUTTING PROMOS is out this week. To celebrate, here are two erasures of Dusty Rhodes’ legendary “Hard Times” promo from 1985. BRUISER thanks The Bureau of Complaint and cool rock repository, who previously published these poems.
Oklahoma City bruisers, join us on Saturday, February 24 at The Floating Bookshop for a FREE reading & release party. First bell is at 7pm.*
“You don’t know what hard times are, daddy!”
– “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes,
October 29, 1985
I know how important it was,
the American Dream.
I have to say the way I feel:
no respect,
no honor amongst thieves.
hard times around this country.
the out of work, can’t
pay wages; can’t
buy food.
the out of work go home.
and a man has worked
a job for years and they give him
hard times! that’s hard times!
this country had hard times
together, brother, and they know.
John Wayne’s dead
and the Heavyweight
belongs to these people.
the people in this country
given this hard time blues.
let me leave you with this:
one way to hurt is to take.
that’s the Heavyweight.
I been there.
this time, I came back.
thank god I have you!
I love you!
I love you!
“First of all, I would like to thank the many, many fans throughout this country that wrote cards and letters while I was down.”
– “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes,
October 29, 1985
I got
a lot:
respect
honor
family
food
home
a computer
a brother
the right here
my body
the blues
the world
and you
thank god
I have you
Twitter: @joshshepard
IG: @joshshepardofficial
“for U.S. Layoffs” was previously published by The Bureau of Complaint
“for Abundance” was previously published by cool rock repository
