GRAPES OF WRATH ( You’re buying a sorrow that can’t talk )

GRAPES OF WRATH
( You’re buying a sorrow that can’t talk )

The owners of the land came onto the land,
Or more often a spokesman for the owners came.
They came in closed cars,
And they felt the dry earth with their fingers,
And sometimes they drove big earth augers
Into the ground for soil tests.

You’re not buying only junk
You’re buying junked lives
And more – you’ll see –
You’re buying bitterness

The owners of the land came onto the land,
Or more often a spokesman for the owners came.

Take em quick, mister
You’re buying a little girl plaiting the forelocks,
Taking off her hair ribbon to make bows
Rubbing the soft noses with her cheek

You’re buying years of work, toil in the sun ;
You’re buying a sorrow that can’t talk
But watch it, mister
A packet of bitterness to grow in your house
And to flower, some day

Maybe we can start again, in the new rich land –
In California where the fruit grows
We’ll start over

How can we live without our lives ?
How will we know it’s us without our past ?

The owners of the land came onto the land,
Or more often a spokesman for the owners came.

All words from The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck.