Sugar Shanty Blues
Copyright March 8, 2011
Aaron A. Lehman
If it happens every year
As sugaring draws near
If you shiver in the night
And sweat in the day
If you shed enough tears
To catch them in buckets
You’re just like the maple tree that freezes at night
And runs in the day
Out of the spout
And into the bucket
To all you ex-Yankees
With your heart in your shoes
If these are your symptoms
Then here’s the sad news
You’ve just come down
With the sugar shanty blues
If you remember the sap wagon
That splashed through the mud
When a wheel hit a rock
And stopped with a thud
Then the sap in the tub launched into space
And we all took a hit in the face
With sap running down
We thought we would drown
Our clothes were a fright
But what a tasty delight
To all you ex-Yankees
With your heart in your shoes
If these are your symptoms
Then here’s the sad news
You’ve just come down
With the sugar shanty blues
If you remember the shanty
With a tin roof on the top
The sap boiled over
And the steam wouldn’t stop
When we put in the wood
The fire would roar
It seemed to say
Feed me some more
When the sap boiled around
To the very last pan
Then the golden syrup
Drained into a can
What a tasty treat when the syrup had cooled
No ex-Yankee will ever be fooled
To all you ex Yankees
With your heart in your shoes
If these are your symptoms
Then here’s the sad news
You’ve just come down
With the sugar shanty blues
