The Goddess Wears a Dirty Crown

flies in the buttermilk shoo fly shoo

me and my lover ain’t studying you

planted a flowerbed first of May

out come baby’s head what did it say

water my roots with fine red blood

wash my skin with a jasmine bud

comb my hair with a panther’s claw

fill my belly with sweet coleslaw

Mama said she didn’t think she could

bring us up from out of the wood

my bare feet feel blood on the ground

the Goddess wears a dirty crown

the Goddess wears a dirty crown

cat’s in the sweet cream shoo cat shoo

lost my partner what do I do

old blues coming on hurts like hell

in too deep to do anything else

boss never says that the work is done

got two souls for the price of one

sow and harvest all of my life

play the woman’s blues with a Barlow knife

Raisin\' them babies work and toil

scratch our living up out of the soil

light her a candle when the moon gets round

the Goddess wears a dirty crown

the Goddess wears a dirty crown

storms that blew through the weather vane

multitudes that we contain

charm the butter, bless the bread

Virgin, mother and the serpent’s head

Mama said she didn’t think she should

bring us up from out of the wood

light her a candle in a white nightgown

the Goddess wears a dirty crown,

the Goddess wears a dirty crown

the Goddess wears a dirty crown,

the Goddess wears a dirty crown

cows in the pasture two by two

planted last year this year it grew

rain on the new leaves, mud on the old

ours is a story that never gets told