A Thousand Heartland Acres

When Daddy drove the old John Deere, he was master of the farm
He'd sweep me up to ride beside him in the crook of his big sunbrowned arm
"This black gold soil is ours," he said, "as far as you can see"
That flat expanse, that dome of sky was the universe to me
It was a thousand heartland acres
A thousand heartland acres

My sixteenth summer Daddy changed, when Mama died that June
He never spoke except to whisper, when he came at night to haunt my room
"How you gettin' on?" the neighbors said; I smiled as I lied
There were endless field of corn and beans; couldn't find one place to hide
In a thousand heartland acres
A thousand heartland acres

The letter came last week; it said he's left it all to you
So I drove back from Chicago, like I swore I'd never, ever do
I felt a stormcloud break in me, as I crossed the Iowa line
Feel the blood rush through my hands, know I'll work this soil, make it mine
All a thousand heartland acres
A thousand heartland acres
A thousand heartland acres
A thousand heartland acres