Yellow Roses

Yellow Roses

14 and 80 acres
A couple horses and two hands
Grind the gears and swing the hammer
Turn a boy into a man
His daddy was near blind then
His brother just 13
His momma swept the floors but dirt like that just won't come clean

Only North Dakota
Would make promises like this
Bring with you all your hope here
See what she can do with it

He built corrals and fences
The family's homestead up in time
Rode the river in the big draws
With the cowboys for a dime
But there's something bout the work here
Made him want some of his own
Signed papers on tar paper shacks
And called the land his home

Only North Dakota
Could make promises like this
Bring with you all your hope here
See what she can do with it
Only North Dakota
Where the ground turns white to green
The rain the snow the storms they blow in
Like you've never seen

Right there we could have left it
His dreams sprouting from the ground
But if man can build a fortress
Only man can knock it down

But when the war was over
He found himself a bride
Yellow roses in the garden
And their children were her pride
Lost money on the cattle
And he lost some on the grains
Lost her when she went to sleep and did not wake again

Only North Dakota
Would make promises like this
Bring with you all your hope here
See what she can do with it
Only North Dakota
Where the ground turns white to green
The rain, the snow the storms they blow in like you've never seen

But a man cannot give up here
He didn't have the mind
He made biscuits in the morning
And taught all the babes to ride
When the neighbors fell on hard times
He gave a hand or bought them out
And watered yellow roses in the heat of summer droughts

Now I stand here with my children
One on my hip, one holds my hand
Another generation breathing life into this land
We count pennies and our blessings
And to the memories we cling
And down in the barnyard yellow roses bloom here every spring

Only North Dakota
Would make promises like this
Bring with you all your hope here
See what she
Can do with it