Mississippi Summer

My hands are as cracked as an August field Burned in the sun for a hundred years Furrows so deep you could hide yourself Ain't plantin' cotton no more this year I'll just sit on the porch with my eagle eye Watch for a change in the wind Roads are as straight as a shotgun barrel 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 before the harvest comes Black clouds gathering at 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 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 before the harvest comes