Aunt Mattie's Quilt

Aunt Mattie bent a thousand times down the long black rows

Then battled with the angry weeds so little seeds could grow

Come summer Mattie pulled the snow from cruel and cutting bolls

Round 'n round the spinning wheel beneath Aunt Mattie's boot

She was patient pale and slender and was only eight years old

Two winters spun out summer's threads in rich and creamy folds

She recalled the soil and cotton seeds and summer's hopeful shoots

And she had a bolt of cotton cloth when she turned ten years old

If we bend and plant the seeds and tame the wicked weeds

If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl

If we let the sun and rain assist and simplify our needs

Indigo and lavender made up Aunt Mattie's sky

We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world

The hour before the day would end it fed young Mattie's dream

Remembering her childhood days she made the rustic dye

She made indigo and lavender when she turned just fourteen

If we bend and plant the seeds and tame the wicked weeds

If we let the sun and rain assist and simplify our needs

We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world

If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl

Aunt Mattie bends a thousand times down each patchwork row

The valley of the shadow cannot call her from her seams

Piece by piece and stitch by stitch in fading candle glow

Until finishing her lifetime's work she dies at seventeen

If we bend and plant the seeds and tame the wicked weeds

If we let the sun and rain assist and simplify our needs

We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world

If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl