[ music: Natalie Merchant/lyric: Natalie Merchant ]







the legs of Maddox kitchen tables

my whole life twisted on a lathe

in a foreman's torrent

my first English was

"faster boy if you want your pay"

barking commands

loud and simple

we could all obey



then I was forever pulling silvers

rubbed the sawdust always

deeper in my eye

varnish vapor that could linger

on my skin

it held tight

the whine of spinning blades

still echoes to bother my sleep at night



see that ox

stamped dead center

on the letter head of the company mail

four decades a spitting image

of the animal I portrayed

at Maddox Table a yoke was carved

for my neck



sun through the window oil spattered

and in mason jars

tricked plenty seeds thrive

the standing joke

around the shop was

with my green thumb

anything'd grow

my part was to laugh

show and ornery jig had

cut it at the knuckle bone



see that ox

trade mark burned

into every stick of furniture

from horn to tail

four decades a spitting image

of the animal I portrayed

at Maddox Table a yoke was carved

for my neck



was tailor made



o my Dolly was a weak

not a burdened girl

treat her to a piece of vaudville

a Wintergarden moving picture show

Bemus Point on July Sundays

by trolley we'd go



to your benefit we's strike or bargain

with the waving fist a union man

not just for

smokes spirits candy and cologne

but for

automobile keys

cash in the bank

and the deed

on a place called home