Out my window
Old oak tree
More than roots
More than leaves
More than an image
A memory to me
They come here but they don’t know us
Not from here but they oppose us
They think this is a hobby
Like a plant in their glass lobby
A fleeting passion
Like it’s going out of fashion
They think and they assume
Too late they presume
They think
They think
They don’t know
They think water comes so easily
Cause they can get it legally
Men in suits who haven’t walked the fields
Can’t tell the difference from fiction and real
Think it’s been easy
Don’t see what we see
A thousand hours, hands in the dirt
They’ll watch but never work
They think
They think
They don’t know
This is our chosen life
We walk right through the strife
Let the land be our eyes
Send voices to the sky
They cut us with their knives
Don’t care what lives or dies
But this is our chosen life
We’ll keep it alive
This is our design
The earth will hear our cries
And then watch us rise
This is our chosen life
This oak tree holds my son’s heart, his very breath
40 years later, the roots run beyond our depth
It is our peace, our family, a symbol of our farm
The community we reach to through extended arms
What were once silent nights beneath its branches
Now suffer from the aftershocks of manmade avalanches
They do not know our soil, these people and their machines
They do not know our history, our hard work, our dreams
But still they drill and take more and more
Take our quiet, take our water stores
How much is it to ask that they see beyond their acreage
See that for some of us, this way of life is sacred
Three years of drought out of ten
What do we do with such a lesson
Where does it end, when will it rain
Will our land ever be the same
Shall we pray to the soil or to the sky
Shall we shed tears or ask why
Or do we already have the answer
In the plight of farmers and ranchers
How long did we ignore
The cries of the earth
The knocks on our door
How long did we pretend
That these were moments
Passing trends
How long would we wait
Turn a cheek on the debate
How long did we wait
As we sealed our fate
Three years of drought out of ten
Our land is sinking into recession
Families cut away from their orchards
Is this all just slow torture
As the machines and the money dig deeper
Say if the earth gives up, we’ll just leave her
Like she’s something to discard
Old and marred
Three years of drought out of ten
What do we do with such a lesson
This oak tree holds my son’s heart, his very breath
40 years later, the roots run beyond our depth
It is our peace, our family, a symbol of our farm
The community we reach to through extended arms
What were once silent nights beneath its branches
Now suffer from the aftershocks of manmade avalanches
They do not know our soil, these people and their machines
They do not know our history, our hard work, our dreams
But still they drill and take more and more
Take our quiet, take our water stores
How much is it to ask that they see beyond their acreage
See that for some of us, this way of life is sacred
“Good Trouble"
May we all gather
A thousand voices strong
May we all gather
A thousand bodies long
For in this world of ruin and fight
It’s in each other that we’ll find light
Let’s make some good trouble
Wrestle the tornado that left us with rubble
Scream louder than the lightning
Burn with the flames that we’re igniting
We won’t go down, won’t be held back
As we await their attack
All good things are worth the struggle
Let’s make some good trouble, trouble
Where did history’s heroes live
Did they stand quietly and take the shiv
Did they play nice or play pretend
Did they call the hateful friends
Or did they stare ahead
At the future there could be instead
Let’s make some good trouble
Wrestle the tornado that left us with rubble
Scream louder than the lightning
Burn with the flames that we’re igniting
We won’t go down, won’t be held back
As we await their attack
All good things are worth the struggle
Let’s make some good trouble, trouble
We refuse to stop caring
We refuse to stop swearing
We refuse to stop listening
To voices stronger than all these things
We are who we are because of each other
All different stories, all different colors
Let’s make some good trouble
Wrestle the tornado that left us with rubble
Scream louder than the lightning
Burn with the flames that we’re igniting
We won’t go down, won’t be held back
As we await their attack
All good things are worth the struggle
Let’s make some good trouble, trouble
All good things are worth the struggle
Let’s make some good trouble, trouble
