Baptize Me

Jet, spirt, squirt, spout, splash, swash, rush, gush…
Flow on to your ocean home, Mississippi River, flow on.
Flow on — froth and foam. Go on home! Go on home!
I’m a twisted traveler too, but time stood still on your muddy emerald banks.
And I saw your beauty… and I wanted it for my own.
And I saw your strength… and I wanted it for my own.
And I knew you as a source of life… and I wanted that too —
to posess and share you with my friends.
Jet, spirt, squirt, spout, splash, swash, rush, gush…
I wanted to take you home.
I got a pail. I got a scoop.
Filled that bucket with Mississippi soup.
I went back down to my hometown
and locked that bucket to my porch…
for the whole neighborhood to see.
Jet, spirt, squirt, spout, splash, swash, rush, gush…
Flow on… Mississippi… Flow on
but it didn’t!
Stagnation… Standstill… and it stunk.
No, no I can’t own you. Nobody owns you.
Flow on to your ocean home, Mississippi River, flow on.
Bye bye Mississippi. ba… Bye bye… ba. ba. ba baptize me in that river now,
go on and go down now…
Gimme, gimme water now.
Mama gimme water;
pappa gimme water — now;
gimme water.