There's a fly in the window

A dog in the yard

And a year since I saw you

There's a trunk in the corner

I keep all my letters

My bills and demands I keep too

Well I can't help thinking

About the times

You were a wife of mine

You aimed to please me

Cooked black-eyed peas-me

Made elderberry wine

Drunk all the time

Feeling fine on elderberry wine

Those were the days

We'd lay in the haze

Forget depressive times

How can I ever get it together

Without a wife in line

To pick the crop and get me hot

On elderberry wine

Round a tree in the summer

A fire in the fall

Flat out when they couldn't stand

The bottle went round

Like a woman down south

Passed on from hand to hand