Utah Phillips Jesse's Corrido
On the corners together you'll find us,
'Neath the street lamps at midnight we're there,
Our spirits like smoke that blows through the night,
Restless but going nowhere.
Trouble is all we can give you
For trouble is all we have known,
Our lives like water that runs through our hands
Leaving us unloved and alone.
Our fathers you say were just like us,
Our children will all be the same
Hair like black leather and skin brown as wood,
Speaking some low Spanish name.
Remember the mothers who gave us our lives
Like grass in the spring of their years,
And left us behind with hearts light as wine
Their breasts undissolved by our tears.
The things that I do are all very bad things,
I do them and then don't know why.
You hold up your children with blue or brown eyes
And say they're much better than I.
My friends, they too all despise me,
I do all the wrong they have planned,
And all that I have for the years of my life
Is a cross that I've cut on my hand.
You put me in jail behind iron bars,
You find me with blood on my hands,
Tomorrow I'll stand up in front of your guns
And give you the life you demand.
But when you sit down at your table tonight
With children and wife sitting by,
Recall this corrido my red blood has made
And now miamigos, goodbye.
