BORROWED GROUND (Schumann) The wind out here's like a cross-cut saw the land is red and green The summer sun's hanging in a pale blue sky the air is sharp and clean There's a frozen moment in waving grain food for a hungry world But we can't clothe ourselves with a cheque we can barely feed ourselves At night I lie awake and I worry and the debts go round and round Furrows in my night time forehead and furrows on borrowed ground There's an old galv shed with a laughing lean its kept the tractor dry I remember the day we knocked it up with stringy bark and fencing wire The earthern floor's been beaten hard where the rain hasnt cut a path I'm frightened to look because I'm beaten too and the mice run through the chaff And I lie on my bed, staring into the red and the overdraft wont come down You wonder if its worth all the sleepless nights Living on borrowed ground And I dont blame your brother son for moving into town It's no place here for a bright young man living on borrowed ground I watch all the programmes on the ABC after the sun's gone down Lucy Broad's talking on "Countrywide" talking about borrowed ground We don't own this place anymore, and I don't know how or why There's some money-men coming from Sydney to tell me, its only a matter of time Well, I hope they can read the seasons and they're not here just to muck around Because they still have to feed a nation, they've got to feed them from borrowed ground |