Old Wabasso Road

-Christopher Louis

I was born where the orange blossoms bloom

In the light of a Florida moon

Barefoot boy with a heart full of light

Running through the orange groves well into the night

That sun-soaked soil raised me right

Now it’s locked behind a wall of hate and spite

I can’t go home, no matter how I cry

There’s a law that tells me, don't even try

They wrote me out of my own birthright

Turned my past into a permanent fight

I still see the palm trees sway in the breeze

But freedom there ain’t meant for me

Oh, I wish I could go home

To Old Wabasso Road

The house still stands, my great-grandpa built

Love, laughter, and story filled

But I can't go there, can't fill my dinner plate

Because my record’s flaunted by the hands of hate

A scarlet letter in the law’s design

As if my human rights are not really mine

I can’t go home, no matter how much I pray

They slammed the door, said stay the hell away

They say I’m free, but I'm not welcome here

Where love got lost in their greed and fear

I can still see the ocean, feel the sun on my face

But it has to stay a memory,  a winless race

Oh, I wish I could go home

To Old Wabasso Road

Why abuse your power, why demand control?

Wasn't love and kindness once our goal?

I paid the price, I served my time

But still I’m damned at the Florida Line

I can’t go home, I wish there was a way

To touch the land that shaped me day by day

They took my roots, they claimed my sky

Left me wandering with a lonesome cry

But I still carry that sunshine glow

Even where the cold winds blow

Oh, I wish I could go home

To Old Wabasso Road

Florida, you live in my heart and song

Even if you say I don’t belong

I hope one day before I'm too old

You'll let me come home

To Old Wabasso Road