American Pictures

Drove to California When they shut down the mine Left the Blue Ridge Mountains And the life we had behind Mister cutting coal's The only thing I ever did Now I can't find a thing Pays even close to half of it Siren never sounded Selling prices caved House went underground With everything we saved Living in my pickup With my wife and little son I can't shake this feeling Of the failure I've become American pictures, American life American dream, unrealized God shed his grace on thee From sea to shining sea We're waiting down the lumber yard Hoping they got work for me I work the airport snack bar In St. Louis every day Stare out of the window Watching people fly away Never been no further Than a hundred miles from here And the two-room flat Where I was born back thirty seven years Sometimes I dream about Paris Sometimes I dream about Rome Sometimes I go to China When I'm on the bus back home My God I'm going to die Before I ever see those things The midtown bus is fast But it ain't got no wings Oh beautiful, oh beautiful For spacious skies Amber waves of grain Subsidized American pictures Poetry and rhyme Purple mountain's majesty Far away from this world of mine I come across the border with my family Clean houses for a living About a hundred dollars each I bring my vacuum cleaner with me Everywhere I go Life is hard but better Than it was in Guerrero I'm grateful to this country I hope that we can stay I lie awake imagining Them dragging us away Land of opportunity I ain't asking for a hand Why's this little dream I got So hard to understand? American pictures, American lives American dream, mythologized This land was made for you and me Beautiful song Everyone looks at me Like I'm singing it wrong America pictures America pictures America pictures