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
  She was patient pale and slender and was only eight years old
  
  Round 'n round the spinning wheel beneath Aunt Mattie's boot
  She recalled the soil and cotton seeds and summer's hopeful shoots
  Two winters spun out summer's threads in rich and creamy folds
  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 let the sun and rain assist and simplify our needs
  If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl
  We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world
  
  Indigo and lavender made up Aunt Mattie's sky
  Remembering her childhood days she made the rustic dye
  The hour before the day would end it fed young Mattie's dream
  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
  If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl
  We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world
  
  Aunt Mattie bends a thousand times down each patchwork row
  Piece by piece and stitch by stitch in fading candle glow
  The valley of the shadow cannot call her from her seams
  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
  If we follow in the barefoot path of one persistent girl
  We'll throw a healing quilt across an ever ailing world