Appalachian Lullaby Poem

I left my heart in West Virginia
at the tender age of nine years old.
For a place somewhere up in Ohio
where there were jobs Daddy had been told.

It was a land of promise up in Ohio
where a man could feed his family.
But what use has food to a soul that’s dying
it seemed a poor exchange to me.

[chorus]
To the earth’s four corners a generation scattered,
far from their roots of generations past.
They did not know as the family parted,
a tree with shallow roots can never last.
An Appalachian lullaby
I can still hear the mountains cry.
As people left everything they’d known
Seeking for a better job and home.
It was the end of family
an all American tragedy.
an Appalachian lullaby
makes you hang your head and cry.

There were trips back home til Grandma departed
Then the trips grew fewer through the years.
Had Grandma known what was to follow
Her sweet blue eyes would have flowed with tears.

Now my Daddy’s buried up in Ohio
The children are scattered to the winds.
Far from their roots in West Virginia
Where this child’s heart has always been.

[chorus]
To the earth’s four corners a generation scattered,
Far from their roots of generations past.
They did not know as the family parted,
A tree with shallow roots can never last.
An Appalachian lullaby,
I can still hear the mountains cry.
As people left everything they’d known,
Seeking for a better job and home.
It was the end of family,
an all American tragedy.
an Appalachian lullaby,
makes me hang my head and cry.

’cause I left my heart in West Virginia,
at the tender age, of 9 years old.