07/15/2024
Dedicated to all my friends still suffering without power, a week after a relatively minor storm.
Houston’s Centerpoint Lament (to the tune of Sound of Silence, with apologies to Paul Simon)
(No one knows what they’re doing)
Hello darkness, my old friend
Centerpoint has failed us all again.
Sitting home here in the dark and heat
Nothing in the fridge is safe to eat.
And the map says we have power, but we don’t.
And we won’t.
Because no one knows what they’re doing.
In many storms there comes a time
When wind and water levels climb.
In a hurricane and flood prone town
we know the power’s likely to go down.
We trust in a big and powerful monopoly
That works sloppily,
And no one knows what they’re doing.
“Fool” said I “you think they can
supply power on demand.”
See that’s the purpose of the company
and we don’t ask them to work for free,
And we need our lights and air condit’ing steadily
Don’t you see?
But no one knows what they’re doing.
When they went to wind and sun
they said that outages were done.
Whether heat or cold or wind and rain
Loss of power always brings pain.
It seems that there’s always some excuse
claims of over use
Because no one knows what they’re doing.
When a big storm is on the way
Centerpoint makes no real plans, or plays.
Lots of help coming from out of state
arriving in Houston much too late.
Then they have to sit doing nothing all day long
It’s just wrong
When no one knows what they’re doing.
So, the people hope and pray
that this time way they’ll find a way
to make our homes and our work places run
and keep the lights and air condit’ing on.
But their dreams are just shattered like the glass
In a stormy blast
Because no one knows what they’re doing.
Though some think there is a way
to make government come save the day
As long as Centerpoint is getting paid
Nothing’s ever going to get changed
‘Cause the truth is that they really do not care
They’re not scared
And no one knows what they’re doing.