Dirt

I remember that summer I was ten years old When our days ceased to shine No, you could not take a breath When those black blizzards came Strippin' land in dire need of rain There was dirt on the floor As mama swept all day long Leavin' trails of tears and mud down her face There was dirt in our beds And there was dirt in our clothes And there was dirt in the little that we ate We had heard about the market's fall A couple years before But the fields and the harvest all seemed fine Sometimes the things that kill us That which we don't know That strip the land of everything but pride Stay close together That's all we knew to get by I recall a helpless feelin' First time that I saw my father cry Looking back on everything we had, on everything we lost Still makes me wonder was staying worth the cost? But the town folk up and left They boarded up the schools and banks and the churches And that, to me, was wrong Come next year, it would be better For the last one standing tall For the ones, that showed the most resolved. They announced the New Deal With the Conservation Act and then the Relief Fund But we were on our knees There was little hope by then So we just stood there in that line And we thanked the man for that little bit of cheese Stay close together That's all we knew to get by How I recall a helpless feelin' The first time that I saw my father cry Looking back on everything we had, on everything we lost Still makes me wonder was stayin' worth the cost?