The Ladies Singing the Blues

I go walking and at once once they're stalking me
The ladies singing their song
My kid show, it starts
The record going of
The ladies singing their song
Strangers acting like they've always known me
They poke me, they stroke me
They treat me like they own me
And they're all set to bend my ear
The afternoon long
The ladies singing their song

The way you look, I'd say that it's your first
My dear, I'll bet you feel so proud that you could burst
My dear
Now as for me, I couldn't wait to feel again
What I felt then
So I had ten!
My first kid simply popped out like a cork
My dear
The next they couldn't pry out with a fork
My dear
My third was twins
My fourth I don't remember
Oh no, fifth came first
The twins came in September

I try riding but there's just no hiding from
The ladies singing their song
My ballooning only brings more crooning
From the ladies singing their song

My kin were rugged pioneers
By hardship they were steeled
When Grandma had my momma, she just squatted in a field
When I learned I was pregnant
Didn't want no modern fuss
So I didn't count
And dropped my kid in the backseat of a bus
The natural way
Can't afford to miss the natural way
You bite the cord like this!
Each one desperate for someone to collar
They scold me, revolt me
So helpful I could holler

Forty-one hours in labor
How I bargained and I swore
Don't laugh. Don't laugh! It's true
You think that's bad?
They tell me that I screamed for forty-four
There is no moment in my past rougher
But when you're through, you'll be that much tougher
You have a road to fulfill
It's God's will that a woman should suffer

Pain! The thing I could not stand is pain
I told the doctor, Put me out!
Each one, and there's another coming along
The ladies
And here's the message that's so strong
The ladies
Seems I do everything all wrong
The ladies
How can I ever share these feelings?
Where are the words I could employ?
No one but me will know my fear
For the terrible, unbearable
Unshareable joy

I'm back walking
And again, I'm talking to the ladies singing their song
Their eyes glisten, so of course
I listen to the ladies singing their song
Each one worse than the ones that came before 'em
They clutch me, they touch me
I wish I could ignore 'em
But we both know soon they'll number me in the throng
Of ladies
It's just to get back at Eve
The ladies
I wanna conceive, conceive, conceive
The ladies singing their song
(You can't adore us but you can't ignore us)
(When you join our chorus you'll be singing along)