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
As 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 bating for all of us
I thought I heard the Angel of Dath overhead
But it’s only the cropduster’s plane
Hoes rise and fall like the beating of wings
Lord, send us freedom and rain