Younger Than America

I'm sick of blowing all this smoke out

Trying hard to feel doubt

My book dropped to the ground

At the part where the frontiers are all pulled down

But they couldn't and they wouldn't have

They couldn't and they shouldn't have

But they could and they would have

I inherited a nature

In a language all worn out

And wallowed by the windows

At a rambling house at the edge of

What I couldn't have

I couldn't and I shouldn't have

I could and I should have

Someday you'll find a heaven

Full of the guilt and freedom

Of somewhere younger than America

Bordering what we can hope to have

Through the north woods

East out of this slow-motion town

Through the willows and the aspens

'Cos you've been weighed down

Full of what

You couldn't have

You couldn't and you shouldn't have

You could and you should have

Someday you'll find a heaven

Full of the guilt and freedom

Of somewhere younger than America

Bordering what we can hope

And from the first edition

Of East of Eden

You find a version of America

Born in what we can hope to have

Someday you'll find a heaven

Full of the guilt and freedom

Of somewhere younger than America

Bordering what we can hope