Nothin' happened underground in Louisiana
Except in this house
Except here
Except here
At 913 St. Anthony Street
Lake Charles, Louisiana
This house got a basement
This house got a basement, true
No other house 'round here gots one
No other house 'round here gots one
This one, this one, this one do
This one, this one, this one
Ain't very deep for a basement
But still it's planted in the swampy soil
Sunk in the mud, in the marsh and the mire
Down with the snakes and the snails and the bracken (I agitate)
Singin' them sediment top-soil blues (root to the bayou)
Alluvial delta silt
Saltwater ooze
Round and round I agitate
While them what does the clothes await
They mm, contemplate and
Mm, speculate
In the peace my one-horsepower
Electric motors hum
Creates
Tough and dreary and (in the peace) (them that does)
All disheveled (my one-horsepower) (the clothes awaits)
Sixteen feet (electric motors) (they contemplates)
Below sea level (hum, creates) (they speculates)
What shall be?
What lies in store
In 1963?
Or four?