SWAMP WITCH [WORDS]

Blackwater Hattie lived back in the swamp
Where the strange green reptiles crawl
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees
Like sausage on a smokehouse wall
Swamp is alive with a thousand eyes
And all of them watchin you
Stay offa track to Hattie’s Shack
In the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack
Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town
Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you in when the sun go down
Rumours of what she’d done, rumours of what she’d do
Kept folks offa track to Hattie’s shack
In the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on
And the swamp water overflowed
Skeetahs and the fever grabbed the town like a fist
Doctor Jackson was the first to go
Some said the plague was brought by Hattie
There was talk of a hangin too
Talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles
From the bowels of the Black Bayou

Early one morn tween dark and dawn when shadows fill the sky
There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry
In the square there was found a big black round vat full of gurglin brew
Whisperin sounds as folks gathered round
“It came from the Black Bayou”

Ain’t much pride when you’re trapped inside
A slowly sinkin ship
Scooped up the liquid deep and green
And the whole town took a sip
Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue
Let’s thank old Hattie for saving our town
We’ll fetch her from the Black Bayou

Party ah ten of the town’s best men headed for Hattie’s shack
Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good
And they’re gonna bring Hattie back
Never found Hattie, and they never found the shack,
And they never made a trip back in
Parchment note they found tacked to a stump
Said, “Don’t come lookin again. . .”