Hugh Moffatt's wonderful song about our part of the world: the borderlands of Far West Texas. I first heard Hugh's sister Katy Moffatt sing this at Strawberry Festival in California when I was there with the Austin Lounge Lizards. I admit I had to take a little poetic license with the third verse. The verse, as Katy sings it, starts "I stand naked on the shore" - as I write this I'm a man in his mid-50s and I didn't think anyone needed that visual in their head, y'know..? So I modified slightly: "As I ease out from the shore". Hope you don't mind, Hugh.
lyrics
The desert sun is going down
Santa Elena winds are calm
I walked all day in the Texas sand
I knew that she'd be there
Sun brown skin and coal black hair
Her eyes are calling across the Rio Grande
I have seen her there before
On the shore in Mexico
I've always turned my eyes away in time
I've been holding back so long
I don't care what's right or wrong
Today's the day I cross the borderline
Chorus:
On the borderline I'll trade away the life I know
Swim the Rio Grand and lose myself in Mexico
I've been dreaming of her brown skin touching mine
And her dark eyes waiting for me there
Across the borderline
As I ease out from the shore :)
I won't turn around no more
Though I'm leaving everything behind
The river's safe and slow
And once I cross I know
There's no returning across the borderline
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