[Verse 1]
Alas, I was wed to a Wyoming plowman
T'was a tragic mistake I did always assert
Though he was a good man who loved me the price was
A protracted war with the dust and the dirt
Dirt lingered in grain fields and loitered in barnyards
Glommed onto all his clodhoppers and shirts
It jumped out in clumps on my clean kitchen floors and
The poor man was puzzled each time I did blurt

[Chorus]
Life is a toil and love is a trouble
Beauty will fade and riches will flee
Pleasures will dwindle and prices will double
Nothing is as I would wish it to be

[Verse 2]
I did my reveilles to the dust devils
In my Wyoming home I was a soldier in skirts
My cannons were cauldrons of tallow a-boil
My life was the doldrums from mountains of work
On Monday t'was laundry 'til Tuesday was upon me
By Wednesday I was ornery and apt to be curt
Dirt swept through the windows, crept under the doorsills
So did my weeks in full circle revert
[Chorus]
Life is a toil and love is a trouble
Beauty will fade and riches will flee
Pleasures will dwindle and prices will double
Nothing is as I would wish it to be

[Verse 3]
From bad to worse when I took to the birthing
From various holes on my babies it spurt
My life was awash in soiled bibs and diapers
I was ever exhausted but always alert
A crabby Brunhilde, a broomstick guerilla
And though it was hopeless my fate to avert
I fought on and on for my home in Wyoming
'Til I swooned in the gloaming, then off in a hearse
Now my ghost haunts my husband a-moaning and groaning
You buried me in this cursed high prairie dirt

[Chorus]
Life is a toil and love is a trouble
Beauty will fade and riches will flee
Pleasures will dwindle and prices will double
Nothing is as I would wish it to be
Nothing is as I would wish it to be