Sweet Desert Childhood

(album: Flying Again - 1975)

It was off the desert road
Fourteen miles up in the canyon I was born
Where the rocks were piled up high
And when the sun went down
They looked like big old monsters

You could yell out your whole name
And the echo would come back crystal clear
And the silence was so deafening
I could hear it like thunder in my ears
I still taste the sweet cool water
As it bubbled out to quench the burning sand

And the cottonwoods stood trembling
As the desert wind blew soft across the land
Somewhere far away a coyote
Called out his mournful ghostly song
And I knew that very soon
Sweet desert childhood would be gone

Can a man ever go back home again?
Can a man ever live that way again?
The old windmill made a groan
As it turned around to face the cold of the night
The proof of all existence
Crackled warm in the flickering firelight

And the stars were so perfect
That I wondered might this all just be a dream
Could this all-alone place really be as magic as it seems?
Can a man ever go back home again?
Can a man ever live that way again?