16 Lanes of Highway I once had a swamp when I was younger The ducks and geese would pa** in the fall and spring Bulrushes sighed and the frogs would roar like thunder In the evening you could hear the blackbirds sing And to the east, rose a briar hill above me And we'd sit up there and watch the clouds roll by We didn't know that we'd be saying so long To the frogs and the birds and the dragonflies CHORUS Now paradise is 16 lanes of highway And the peace is gone and the cars roll by each day And the house in which I grew now affords a lonely view It overlooks a 16 lane highway And the tractors came and the trucks and the heavy graders, And in a month, they tore that swamp apart And they left an ugly scar while we stood watching For a progress a mind of planner's work of art And the people that I knew all started moving And the houses store there empty row on row And the ones that didn't take the easy money Were later sold out short and forced to go CHORUS Now the city's gone on by to take some more land And the ducks and geese ain't been around for years And the kids who come of age in those apartments Will never understand my bitter tears They'll never see a thing that wasn't put there They'll never see a wild thing growing free And they'll never know a quiet day of living God help all the kids but please help me CHORUS