Morgen

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
The boy from the city brought a spool of steel wire,
To tell me exactly what this pasture is worth.
He walks in a straight line right through the briar,
Stretching his silver flat over the earth.
He says it’s a thousand and twenty point two,
Assuming the math on his paper is true.

[Chorus]
But you can’t plant a number, you can’t yoke a grid,
You measure the dirt by the labor you did.
It’s shoulder and harness and racing the heat,
Until the damp shadow pulls under your feet.
One morgen of soil, one tilt of the sun,
You don't ask the ruler to know when you're done.

[Verse 2]
My roan ox is panting, a heavy wet bellows,
His left ear flicking at horseflies and foam.
We cut through the chicory, breaking the yellows,
To turn up the black of the under-root loam.
My back muscles lock at the edge of the rise,
The boundary is drawn by the sting in my eyes.

[Chorus]
'Cause you can’t plant a number, you can’t yoke a grid,
You measure the dirt by the labor you did.
It’s shoulder and harness and racing the heat,
Until the damp shadow pools under your feet.
One morgen of soil, one tilt of the sun,
You don't ask the ruler to know when you're done.

[Bridge]
His map is perfectly square on the page,
A fair way to tax us, an easy plot to sell.
It treats every acre the same in its age,
But a chain doesn't know when a body breaks well.
He’s drawing an empire in metal and ink,
While we’re walking forward, too thirsty to think.

[Instrumental Break]

[Outro]
He packs up his transit and waves from the road,
Leaving his wooden pegs driven in deep.
I reach for the collar to loosen the load,
We’ve got exactly this morning to keep.
The steel is for men who have never been burned.
The land is the size of the earth you can turn.
Before the noon hits the dirt.