Well I packed all of my things into this blanket To call this year to earn coyotes fill Kiss my wife and kids goodbye choke back the quiver in my breath And took my first steps into this corridor of d**h If I'm lucky I will make it to a drain With 500 of my brothers, I would share the strain Of standing in this boxcar praying for rain It's the only the way we will quench our thirst [Chorus:] In these gardens of white crosses Growing in the California sand In these gardens of white crosses We are the children of poverty trying to a make a stand If we make it past the border, we will scatter Vanish just like smoke in autumn wind I will run until my color will not matter Hopin' I can find some work or possibly a friend There are others who have made it here They will show me how to find a job and a place to lay my head And I cannot be concerned with dreams of my children For there are 5 others in line for my bed
[Chorus:] In these gardens of white crosses Growing in the California sand In these gardens of white crosses We are the children of poverty trying to a make a stand I will gladly pick your peaches or clean your hotel rooms I will do the jobs American won't do With cell phones to their heads and $700 dollar shoes I will risk my life 'cause it's all I have to lose Let the devil in the mountains promise me a ride Found an 18 wheeler and put all of us inside And just outside of victory, 19 of us died None of our bodies hit the floor And so my wife she still wonders when I'm coming home The riches that I promised her for leaving her alone I said I would send her all that I could save But I ended up in California in an unknown grave [Chorus:] In these gardens of white crosses growing in the California sand In these gardens of white crosses we are the children of poverty trying to a make a stand [repeat]