Mama's Bottle Tree

East Tennessee decided she wanted to have a little winter weather. After a mild start to the season, everything is cold, icy and a wee bit snowy in the mountains. I am pretty sure some of the bottle trees are looking extra shiny with their glittery cover. Mama and I have been talking about making our own bottle trees, but neither of us have made one yet. I wrote this about a year ago. I hope you enjoy it!
 

Listen up now; we grew up 
In Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee 
Never locked the church door 
Didn’t even have us a key
Evil never came ‘round 
Even on a cloudy day 
It was Mama’s bottle tree 
That kept bad spirits away 

Mountain folks stained glass window 
That the sun shines right through 
Bottles of green and yellow 
And some are cobalt blue 
No-good spirits, you got a place to go 
An’ these haint blue bottle’ll do 
Troubles to your shadow show 
Mama’s bottle tree’ll protect you 

Cast a spell upon that tree 
It’s dead there in the ground 
Wind‘ll rustle it a lil bit 
Haints are makin a singing sound 
They’ll spend the night, captured 
Inside that dewy vault 
Morning sun will burn them away 
Wishin they’ld never been caught 

Mountain folks stained glass window 
That the sun shines right through 
Bottles of green and yellow 
And some are cobalt blue 
No-good spirits, you got a place to go 
An’ these haint blue bottle’ll do 
Troubles to your shadow show 
Mama’s bottle tree’ll protect you 

Don’t you come bringin’ troubles 
Around these smoky woods 
I can tell you it’s a waste of time 
To do anything but good 
Get on down the road a ways 
If you  gotta need to bring harm 
Once the darkness falls 
Them bottles got encircling charm 

Mountain folks stained glass window 
That the sun shines right through 
Bottles of green and yellow 
And some are cobalt blue 
No-good spirits, you got a place to go 
An’ these haint blue bottle’ll do 
Troubles to your shadow show 
Mama’s bottle tree’ll protect you

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