To Be Free

Vineland, New Jersey, farm land stretching

Far as the eye can see

Not much down there, but sun-scorched pastures in

Nineteen-fifty-three

The war is over, they came searching

For a place to be

They left the Rhineland, they lost their homeland, and

All their family

Like feathers on the ocean breeze

They went spinning and tumbling 'cross the sea

Never known where they'd come down

Or who they'd be

Like heather on the hillside

They were bruised and they were battered by the breeze

Searching for a place

To be free

Sun burn summers and frost by winter

Kids were plainly dressed

Left the farmhouse when he was old enough, and

Headed out west

From California to Southern Africa

And all the way to France

And on to England to meet my mother in

Nineteen-eighty-one

A feather on the ocean breeze

He went spinning and tumbling 'cross the sea

Never known where he'd come down

Or who he'd be

Like heather on the hillside

He was bruised and he was battered by the breeze

Searching for a place

To be free

Oh, and like a seed

That is flying in the wind

In search of water, soil, and sun

And the birds and the bees

To have it all along

Now here I am, thirty-three years down

Two-thousand-seventeen

I've seen the Rhineland, I've been to Vineland, I'm

A feather on the breeze