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