The Breaking Of The Dawn
Fernando Ortega

There's a slow train
Pulling through the desert
The colored cars pass quietly from sight
Between the highway and the long horizon
Precious dreams wind away with the light.

My brother's and my sisters' faces linger
The hours of our childhood, grave and gold
Driving through these solitary places
Memories of their gentile kinship
Touch my soul

The hawk wheels away as we pass here
The clouds billow up and fly on
Down the road some hard turns
Are going to shake us
Ride with us
Through the breaking of the dawn

Worry for my loving mother
The dimming years,
The trials she has known
Her heart so kind and so weary
Keep her safe one more night
'til I get home

How I long to be right there beside her
And bring everything back to before
We'll arrive with the first light of morning
Keep her safe, let me hold her once more

The sage and Joshua tree remind me
Of the miles to go,
The journey that we're on
In the still, sweet air of the desert
We will ride
Through the breaking of the dawn