North of the Rio Grande

Words and Music by Brendan Nolan
Ould Segosha Music
Key of A minor

CHORUS

Oh the river it ain't so wide
You can nearly touch the other side
And someday I will stand
To the north of the Rio Grande

The companies come and build upon our soil
and pay us precious little for our toil
For everyday the workers stock the shelves
with things they cannot buy themselves
They tell us there are hard times in the world
as if it's something seldom heard
But here we've seen it every single day
It won't get better in this way

CHORUS

Maria works her fingers to the bone
to try and make it look like we've a home
And a floating stench surrounds us every day
and in the dirty pools where children play
This would not be in the promised land
but here south of the Rio Grande
Where workers they come cheap and so does life
And the greedy ones profit from our strife

CHORUS

As I look from the banks of the Rio Grande
to another life in another land
I day-dream as the wind plays through her hair
of Maria standing with me there
For it's only desolation that I see
in the shadow of this factory
And it's no wonder that a man would risk his life
To cross these borders on the night

CHORUS