Working on the Magway

Words: Mark A. Mandel, © 1996
Music: "Working on the Railway" (aka "Pat Works On the Railway"), trad.

I wrote this simply as a work song of the twenty-first century before I realized that it was influenced by Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. With a couple of tweaks it fitted right in.

In twenty-hundred and forty-one
I put my vacuum helmet on,
put my vacuum helmet on
to build the Tycho magway.

CHORUS: Filimee-ory-ory-ay [3x]
Working on the magway.

In twenty-hundred and forty-two
I was transported to the Moon.
And Bog! I nearly met my doom
working on the magway!

It's "Groundhog this!" and "Groundhog that!"
"D'ye still believe the Earth is flat?"
while slaving like a tunnel rat
to build the Tycho magway!

In twenty-hundred and forty-three
'twas then I met sweet Chen* Su-yi.
An elegant wife she's been to me
while working on the magway.

* [Note: "Chen" rhymes with "gun".]

In twenty-hundred and forty-four
we hit a pocket of iron ore.
Three of my chooms were nevermore
seen upon the magway.

In twenty-hundred and forty-five
a blowout left me half alive.
With the vacuum in my lungs like knives
they left me on the magway!

In twenty-hundred and forty-six
the Warden tried some brand-new tricks.
We were in a hell of a fix
working on the magway.

In twenty-hundred and fifty-seven
sweet Chen Su-yi she went to Heaven.
If she left one kid, she left eleven
to work upon the magway.

[Slower]
And now it's twenty-ninety-nine,
I'm getting near the end of the line,
but my grandkids are doing fine:
[resume tempo]
they own the Tycho magway!