If we don't take care of our own how the hell are we supposed
to take care of somebody else's?

A Farmer's Song
.
11/08/2007
by Tom Flannery
copyright 2007 (BMI)

I look out across these fields
and I see 100 years
when the rains they would not come
things grew from sweat and tears
but that ain't enough these days
the time grew cold and hard
like the auctioneers and the bankers
and their assorted body guards

Hand to mouth was all we knew
but they'd always find a way
to float that note a little more
when we could not pay
In town you had your good name
and that was good enough
to sway like a weathervane
when the times got rough
when the times got rough

my crops sentenced to hard time
and they know just what to do
when the imports they flood the markets
and the developers come through
when it cost me more to grow it
than it does for you to buy
how's a farmer supposed to look
his own son in the eye
his own son in the eye

My family fed your family
since before the civil war
it was the land of plenty
and there was always room for more
how we survived the dust bowl
only God would know
He's got his hands full again
'cause the farmer's bank foreclosed
'cause the farmer's bank foreclosed

Guess I should have seen it coming
but then who would bite the hand
that feeds a grateful nation
from her own grateful land
time can do some strange things
like when it stands still and ignores
the greed and the arrogance
playing out outside the door
playing out outside your door
playing out outside my door

my crops sentenced to hard time
and they know just what to do
when the imports they flood the markets
and the developers come through
when it cost me more to grow it
than it does for you to buy
how's a farmer supposed to look
his own son in the eye
his own son in the eye
his own son in the eye

I look out across these fields
and I see 100 years
when the rains they would not come
things they grew from sweat and tears
but that ain't enough these days
the time grew cold and hard
like the auctioneers and the bankers
and their assorted body guards
and their assorted body guards
and their assorted body guards