What's that I hear out in my garden
Run run sonny boy and get my gun
I think I see the neighbor boy Bud Melvin
Digging in your mama's flowerpot

Whats that he's doing to the rhubarb
I swear I've seen him violate the leaves
Belonging to the tree that I once planted
In the honor of the day my daddy fell

"O papa please, I know your troubles
They been hard and they been long
Fighting all these years with the neighbor's kin
(but) This boy before us don't deserve the suffering"

Sonny that's a woman's voice you've taken
Your mercy-cryin-diplomatic tongue
This boy I see before us in the garden
Is guilty being born a son Melvin

I'll be damned before I let our family's shame go unavenged
I'll be damned before I recognize the day
When the Melvin kids inherit that old saw mill
That stole my daddy's lovely guitar hands