Little Brown Bat

Copperman suggested this song...

He calls it "tehlpeal thegyst-to-come"


"Little Brown Bat"
Little brown bat in the amethyst light
Zigzags all the August night
Boys are beating on the old bass drum,
Ghost of the past, and the ghost to come
Alice bought an evening gown
From selling dewberries to the folks in town
The color of the flower called the heliotrope
Lover of sun, flower of hope

Handsome Willie in the golden rod
Face of Jesus, hands of God
Spies Miss Alice walking from town
In her high button shoes & evening gown

He walks her to the old square house just as the cows are lowing
Spies the old folks in the wagon off to church they're going
The boys they set the ladder up just as night is falling
Alice waits till she hears Willie calling

Up at the church the old folks pray
On their knees a-mumbling
Down in the field the boys make hay
Like so many bees a-bumbling

Fire and brimstone, bosom and cod,
Sinners in the hand of an Angry God
Flour and sugar and Aaron's rod
Little brown bat is laughing

Papa pulls the ladder down as the moon is rising
Shuts his head and goes to bed without realizing
Alice isn't in her room, Willie he was knowing
Met her where the evening stars are glowing

The old folk's windows' shuddered tight
Blind to the lovers' roaming
Little brown bat, the eye of night
Ricochets in the gloaming

He took her in the new mown hay
Swift was her undoing
He laid in her arms till the break of day
Left that poor girl ruing

Up at the store the boys all meet as the rooster's crowing
Farmers hitch their wagons up, off to town they're going
Little brown bat flies by the moon, folds his wings in the morning
Pretty Miss Alice, flower of hope, she didn't hear Mama's warning