Beauty At The Back Door

There's a screened-in porch in the front but not the back

The back's just got a door and a crepe myrtle bush

And a little ole dried up garden and some woods way on the back

There's a hickory nut tree that covers the whole roof

Sounds like hand grenades hittin' the tin roof all the time

There's an old wood floor that's bowed up just about everywhere

It's got a thin coat of white stuff on it even though

It's a dark wood floor

There's a washing machine right outside the back door

It's a ringer washer, the kind they don't make anymore

I got my hand caught in it several times

And usually got my ass whipped for it

Even though I's the one that got hurt

There's a snake stick, that's what they called it anyway

By the back door because if you

Wanted to go outside you'd usually need it

Everything's green most of the time except in winter

When you could see the highway, it's not a leaf on the trees

There's an old rock, well, where we clean the squirrels

I used to sit out by that and watch the carbor girl come down the road

She didn't have but one dress and that's all she needed

It was kinda red and kinda gray and kinda tore up and kinda perfect

She's built like a brick shit-house

She had polish on her toenails that only went about halfway down

?Cause they was always tore up

She used to walk across the side yard, right by the well

And go stand by the crepe myrtle bush

And look in the screen door

She'd usually stand there for about ten minutes

And back then I wasn't sure what she wanted

These days I understand, if I'd a known then what I know now

Well, my life might well have been pretty different

Well, she was about eight or nine years older than I was when I first

Started school I knew there was somethin'

There was somethin' about the south and the air was a lot heavier

And it seems like the women sweat even when they're not

I don't know if you've ever heard rain on a tin roof or not

But it's kinda tailor made for love

And day I was in the house and I was lookin' back

Toward the back screen door and there she was

Standin' there for ten minutes

The only thing different on this day is

That my daddy went back there and talked to her

And told her she looked pretty

I thought the same thing but there was somethin' 'bout the look

In his eye was a little different than the one I'd had in mine

And he walked outside and they went past the crepe myrtle bush

And past the well and out into the green

And I walked to the back door and I watched for a long time

And all I could see was trees after a time, I really couldn't see

They came back out and my daddy was walkin' way ahead of her

And she was kinda following, almost runnin'

He acted like he didn't want to have anything to do with her

And I was wondering why, why would you be so happy going in

And so down coming out, I don't know

That's what I thought then

He didn't act like she's so pretty anymore

Now I think I get it

I think I've got it several times