Too Young Ripe, Too Young Rotten - Ray Wylie Hubbard

She lights a candle to the black Madonna

She don’t care now what the Baptists think

She wants something a whole lot stronger

Than a cross hanging on a chain

She wears the ink of a sparrow

On the hand that holds a match

Her words sparkle like flint and silver

She sings as soft as dust and ash

Too young ripe, too young rotten

Needles and tread, linin and cotton

May my sins be forgotten

Too young ripe, too young rotten

She feels more years than she has lived

As she hangs her jeans on the bedpost

She shares her breath now only with the darkness

She owns a wilder heart than most

Too young ripe, too young rotten

Needles and tread, linin and cotton

May my sins be forgotten

Too young ripe, too young rotten