Well, it got so hot last night I swear you couldn't hardly breathe

Heat lightning burned the sky like alcohol

I sat on the porch without my shoes

and watched the cars roll by

as the headlights raced to the corner of the kitchen wall



Mama dear, your girl is here, far across the sea

searching for that sacred core that burns inside of me

and I feel the storm, all wet and warm, not ten miles away,

approaching my Mexican home



`My God', I cried, `it's so hot inside you could die in the living room'

Take the fan out of the window, prop the door back with a broom

The cuckoo clock has died of shock and the windows feel no pane

and the air's as still as the throttle on a funeral train



Mama dear, your girl is here, far across the sea

searching for that sacred core that burns inside of me

and I feel the storm, all wet and warm, not ten miles away,

approaching my Mexican home



My father died on the porch outside on an August afternoon

I sipped bourbon and I cried with a friend by the light of the moon

Now its "Hurry, hurry!Step right up! It's a matter of life or death"

The sun is going downand the moon is just holding its breath



Mama dear, your girl is here, far across the sea

waiting for that sacred core that burns inside of me

and I feel a storm, all wet and warm, not ten miles away,

approaching my Mexican home