Dust

on a sign I saw hanging in the store today

it said in big bright red letters there's work in California

there's an honest job waiting for every good man

nobody goes hungry you pick the peaches with your hand

cause the cotton don't grow here if it never rains

and the wind starts to blow here and it blows right through your brain

it'll carry away what the locust doesn't get

and the bills don't get paid >and the bank takes the rest

fight with the land till it hurts and you don't know what for

you might call me the salt of the earth but I call me dirt poor

and the dust coming over the plains doesn't care about me

see it fill up the sky that's all the convincing I need

when all I'll be leaving behind me is ashes and rust

mama pack up the truck California or bust

say goodbye to the dust

My grandfather came out here in 1841

my father was born here and all of his sons

and he built this whole place with his two strong hands

when he died he had faith in hard work and good land

In the Great War we planted cotton the army needed cloth

my dad said get in on the boom, boy there's no time to be lost

so he got a new mortgage the American way

then the wind came out of nowhere and it wouldn't go away

fight with the land till it hurts and you don't know what for

you may call me the salt of the earth but I call me dirt poor

and the dust coming over the plains doesn't care about me

see it fill up the sky that's all the convincing I need

when all I'll be leaving behind me is ashes and rust

mama pack up the truck California or bust

say goodbye to the dust

And the dust is coming

coming, the dust keeps on coming