Panther Burn

I know a place they call Panther Burn
Sharkey County, Highway 61
Cotton fields everywhere you turn
Climbing slowly in the sun

Mid-July a steaming summer’s day (It’s Mid-July a sultry summer’s day)
A field hand stops to check the sky
He’s just looking for some rain (He’s looking for some rain)
Cool relief from the pain
Of another working day on
Panther Burn

Panther Burn flash me back to the place
Where sandy loam is Delta gold
Living with the land is the nature of the man (Let my spirit roam the land where the black man understands)
And time is just a reason to grow old (That time is just a reason to grow old)

October sunrise on Panther Burn
Cotton lint confusion all around
Summer’s gone now (and) it’s pickin’ time
Gins are humming with the sound

Work’s never done ‘til the crop is in
And the cotton market just keeps going down
Dawn to dusk, seed to bale
Saturday night in Hollandale
As we turn our weary backs on (as they turn their weary backs on)
Panther Burn

Panther Burn flash me back to the place
Where sandy loam is Delta gold
Living with the land is the nature of the man (Let my spirit roam the land where the black man understands)
And time is just a reason to grow old (That time is just a reason to grow old)

December sunset on Panther Burn
Black earth framed by gray sky (Blackbirds sprinkled across the sky)
Wild ducks flying in the frozen air (Cold moon shining through the Cypress trees)
And the waterin’ holes are much alive (Leon’s Playhouse comes alive)

Child of the River sleeps in loneliness
As winter’s desolation claims the land
But when the springtime comes (rolls) around
We’ll drop the seed back into the ground (They drop the seeds back in the ground)
And life returns to fertile
Panther Burn

Panther Burn flash me back to the place
Where sandy loam is Delta gold
Living with the land is the nature of the man (Let my spirit roam the land where the black man understands)
And time is just a reason to grow old (That time is just a reason to grow old)