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Eldem: I left my dear wife Maple back in 1863
to ride my horse Petunia in the Dixie Calvary.
One tear drop blew into the wind as Petunia raced away,
but the sky was blue that afternoon, and the wind began to say,
“Mr. Vanderlu, don’t you cry; this is the start and not the end.
Lord have mercy, what a man can do when their ain’t no woman clinging to him.”
Now where that voice was coming from, I can’t say for sure,
but Petunia’s blood pumped wild and free like it never had before.
Reached Tennessee in just one day, when it used to take us three,
and I became a soldier in the Confederate cavalry.
Maple: Lord have mercy, I remember the day when Eldem said goodbye.
I wished him godspeed, and then ran to the kitchen to cry.
Collapsed on a table, collapsed into a chair,
but as the tears were rolling, a tiny voice was talking in my ear.
“Maple Vanderlu, don’t you cry, this is the start and not the end.
A woman’s charms ain’t nothin, till they been loved by lots and lots and lots
and lots and lots of men.”
Chorus:
Together: Did everything get better or did everything get worse?
I used to be bored to death, now my life feels like a curse.
The skies were grey and blue, but now they’re blue and red.
I used to be the living dead, now I’m alive, but I wish I dead.
Eldem: I can’t recall nothing, friend, since I entered Tennessee.
Days of mud, and nights of blood, have washed out my memory.
But I recall the life I lived with Maple before,
when the days were still as tombstones, and supper was what I lived for.
And I recall my boyhood days with a pony and toy gun;
couldn’t wait till the pretending stopped and the real life had begun.
But now this man just longs to be a boy instead
a boy just waiting for life to begin, a boy just lost in his head.
Chorus
Maple: I’ve become a wretch, my friends, since Eldem left me here.
I’ve lain with every man in town, every travelling man has rested here.
But each night of feeling good just leaves me feeling worse,
like the sailor trying to drink that ocean water when he’s dying of thirst.
And I remember being a girl, just sitting and staring in the fire,
dreaming of how I’d grow up, and fill men with desire.
And now I’ve set their hands and hearts and lips and eyes on fire,
and I dream of being a girl with nothing, a girl just staring in the fire.
Chorus