Can't Put Down Roots in Sand
Words & Music by Mark Rhodes
26 August 2021

I was born
Miami, F-L-A
Where it's flat and straight
And iguanas play

Don't stand too close, I just might explode
Dying to drive on winding country roads
Wanna eat a peach from a roadside stand
You can't put down roots in sand

[CHORUS]
Where you're from---you had no say
Where you'll die—well that's another day
A man lives to turn his hand
You can't put down roots in sand.


I don't like the beach.
There, I said it out loud
It's just hot sand
And an oily crowd

That leather skin is a tragic look
Put me under an old shade tree with a book
Working my jawbone to some song by The Band
You can't put down roots in sand.

[CHORUS]

I don't know why
I want the things I do
But what I love
Is all I know of true

The question why makes no sense to me
I do the best I can and let it be
Good music is the promised land
You can't put down roots in sand

[CHORUS]

"If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often." Leonard Cohen