My Week Off Work

MY WEEK OFF WORK I would go back to the amber waving grain I long to fly to America again Oh yes it’s corny I know To say I love America but it is so When I look around at the restriction And these old methods and ways of affliction In my un-American surrounding And feel the blood in my head pounding With anger and held-temper At the man paid to be my gatekeeper And when I see the planes on their run Daily westbound into the sun And I know, as you do, That there is no one who Wouldn’t give his rice bowl wood and hard Or his party membership card Or her position as third wife in the tent Or her work in the kraal, lifelong spent, To board that moving craft As a drowner boards a life-raft Watch her slip the bond unbound She goes where freedom is found Prima ballerina now she’ll dance Gaily gaining speed she’ll start to prance Leaping up the air will free her swift Graceful strength not seen but felt in lift Two wings full spread to soar in pride Shimmering sheen of pure pearl Diminishing sight, the freedom girl Fast bound to America by knots untied.