June Tabor, Oysterband - Mississippi Summer lyrics

My hands are as cracked as an August field
That's burned in the sun for a hundred years
Furrows so deep you could hide yourself
I ain't planting cotton no more this year
I'll just sit on the porch with my eagle eye
Watch for a change in the wind
Rows 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
I thought I heard the Angel of Death overhead
But it was only the cropduster'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
Hope that I don't die
Before the harvest comes