Phoebe Rees - Mississippi Summer

My hands are as cracked as an August field
That’s burned in the sun for a hundred years
With furrows so deep you could hide yourself
But I ain’t chopping cotton no more this year
I’ll just sit on the porch with my eagle eye
And watch for a change of wind
The rows are as straight as a shotgun barrel
And long as a bullet can spin

You know how hot it gets
In Mississippi
You know how dry it gets
In the summer sun
The dust clouds swirl
All down the Delta
I just hope that I don’t die
‘Fore the harvest comes

Black clouds gathering on the edge of town
But no rain’s gonna fall on us
Hoes rise and fall in a distant field
Earth takes a beating for all of us
I thought I heard the Angel of Death overhead
But it’s only the crop duster’s plane
Hoes rise and fall like the beating of wings
Lord send us freedom and rain

You know how hot it gets
In Mississippi
You know how dry it gets
In the summer sun
The dust clouds swirl
All down the Delta
I just hope that I don’t die
‘Fore the harvest comes