Living in the Future - John Prine

Jehosaphat the mongrel cat

Jumped off the roof today

Some would say he fell, but I could tell

He did himself away

His eyes weren’t bright like they were the night

We played checkers on the train

God bless his soul, he was a tootsie roll

But he’s a dead cat just the same

We are living in the future

I’ll tell you how I know

I read it in the paper

Fifteen years ago

We’re all driving rocket ships

And talking with our minds

And wearing turquoise jewelry

And standing in soup lines

We are standing in soup lines

Jake the barber’s lonely daughter

Went down to her daddy’s shop

She plugged herself to the barber pole

And took a little off the top

There was pressure on the left, pressure on the right

Pressure in the middle of the hole

I’m goin' to Maine on a forty-foot crane

I’m gonna use it for a fishin' pole

We are living in the future

I’ll tell you how I know

I read it in the paper

Fifteen years ago

We’re all driving rocket ships

And talking with our minds

And wearing turquoise jewelry

And standing in soup lines

We are standing in soup lines

Old Sarah Brown sells tickets

Down at the all night picture show

Where they grind out sex

And they rate it with an «X»

Just to make a young man’s pants grow

No tops, no bottoms, just hands and feet

Screaming the posters out on the street

Strangling the curious and the weak

We give 'em what they want to see-o

Give 'em what they want to see

We are living in the future

I’ll tell you how I know

I read it in the paper

Fifteen years ago

We’re all driving rocket ships

And talking with our minds

And wearing turquoise jewelry

And standing in soup lines

We are standing in soup lines