It was ninety miles to freedom but they took the risk
|
Though the ocean was all motion and the wind was brisk
|
The deadly gunboats never saw them in the pale moonlight
|
They were off to Cayo Hueso by the dawns early light
|
The gringo in the garden called the customs man
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They answered all his questions, were allowed to land
|
The ladies shared a hairbrush and their husbands had a coke
|
Then they were taken up to Krome to meet with their kin folk
|
|
[Chorus:]
|
Everybody's got a cousin in Miami
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Everybody understands the impromptu
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Dancing in the heat to the beat
|
That turns your clothing clammy
|
Everybody needs to have a dream come true
|
|
In a third world jungle not so far away
|
Lives a natural drummer with a dream to play
|
He's the brother of the lizard and the flying fish
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But he's been enchanted by the pictures
|
From the satellite dish
|
So his mama packs his bags, knots his red neck tie
|
Sends him north to her relations with a kiss good-bye
|
He's bewildered by the plane ride and the immigration line
|
Until he sees his Christian name upon a cardboard sign
|
|
Everybody's got a cousin in Miami
|
Everybody is an Aborigine
|
Dancing in the heat to the beat
|
That turns your clothing clammy
|
Everybody wants to win that lottery
|
|
It's hard to believe the city started as a trading post
|
Home to the Seminole, pirate and pioneer
|
Between the river of grass and the old mosquito coast
|
Before the railroad claimed the southernmost frontier
|
|
I am umbilically connected to the temperate zone
|
It brought me life, it brought me love
|
I never have outgrown
|
It brought me one too many nights along that Biscayne shore
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And one too many mornings in the Grove Drug Store
|
In one way or the other we're all refugees
|
Living out this easy life below the banyan trees
|
Smoothing off the rougher edges of the culture clash
|
We got a style, we got a look
|
We got that old panache
|
|
[Chorus]
|
|
-----------------
|
Everybody's Got A Cousin In Miami
|
| Jimmy Buffett |
