| Mother mother mother mine,
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| I wager you sent me here,
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| To this house in New Orleans
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| Where I’ve become your fallen son.
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| You thought to make homemade wicks
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| So by our lanterns we might see
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| The cotton strips that you tore and let soak in the kerosene.
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| And while you slept I pierced the strips
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| And found a map down to New Orleans.
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| When I woke with the sun I put on my old blue jeans.
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| In the pocket I found the wicks that lead down to New Orleans.
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| I filled my trunk with my trade dice and homemade liquor.
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| I followed the map put on my prison face
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| And now prepared to ply my trade.
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| I emptied my trunk, I took them in dice
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| And overcharged for my homemade
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| And they said «boy it got us drunk; |
| this stuff tastes like the kerosene»
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| And They did offend, then I struck a match;
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| I ain’t my father I’m no thief
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| That place flared up as sure as an eastern sun
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| I could already hear my mother saying «son what has you done?»
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| I ducked into my trunk,
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| As the people around me screamed.
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| And I was safe inside my trunk as I brought down that place in New Orleans.
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| Mother now I send this telegram though you cannot read.
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| Please send me a map to return, return me from Orleans.
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| And then you can rip this telegram and soak it in kerosene
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| To replace the wicks I stole from you;
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| The light will guide me back from New Orleans.
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| And here is me with this apology of a life.
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| And here is me with this apology of a life. |