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From WWR

Trivia, story behind the song, etc.

Lyrics

Written by: Ben Bedford

Left your home in Southern California
With your lover and a sack of corn
and your children huddled in the Hudson car

Six of them are in the back
the youngest one is on your lap
He's at your breast before you get too far

Across the desert high plateau
the sun it shines, the wind it blows
and L.A.'s just another town you see along the road

Chorus:
Migrant Mother hold on to your children
love them and kiss them, protect and forgive them
'cause your road is rougher still, but under that canvas tarp
your heart is a stunning jewel, and you are a work of art

By Hoovervilles with bums and tramps
mobile villages and camps
where workers lost their hope but hold their pride

By the citrus groves and brush
cold vegetables don't make much lunch
but you've gotten to the point where you don't mind

But the children do not understand
their dirty tears fall in the sand
you run your fingers through their hair and do the best you can

Chorus:

In Nipomo you stop and pose
for a photograph in your ragged clothes
while your lover patches up a tire leak

The older kids have turned away
your wearyed look and your worried way
your eyes avoid the lens as if to speak

I'll work until my back is bent
my skin is scorched and my youth is spent
but will it ever be enough, will we ever win

Chorus

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