You’ve Never Been To North Dakota

Have you ever seen a field alive with green

Thimbleweed and columbine and clover

Heard the black billed magpie call

As Summer fades to Fall

Watched the meadow turn to perfect white all over

I’ve lived here eighty years

And before it disappears

There are so many things I’d love to show you

Wondrous and serene

But if you don’t know what I mean

Then you’ve never been to North Dakota

Have you looked up and read the note

Aurora Borealis wrote

While you were gently sung to sleep by a coyote

Felt your joints get stiff and cold

To let you know you’re growing old

Then you've never been to North Dakota

Well I guess you’ve heard the news

The oil trucks coming through

For a prairie Moon they don’t care one iota

Stand on the Cheyenne River shore

And watch a Golden Eagle soar

‘Till then you’ve never been to North Dakota

A long and dusty road

Wind swept pasture land

Green and white and yellow in the sunshine

Listen hear the Sharptailed Grouse

Watch the tiny meadow mouse

Smell the chilly wind come through the Ponderosa Pine

But a new crowd’s come about

And inflation pushed me out

So long my friends it’s sure been good to know you

They can drill for oil and stay

But no matter what they say

None of them have really been to North Dakota