In the south end of the county
Near the highway and the trains
There's a river long since dried up

But a river just the same
When I was just a boy
I would the lie there on its banks

With my brother and the summer
And Maria Sugarcane


And my brother was born shaky
And he wore our father's rage
And he stumbled through the autumn

Underneath the winter's weight
And he rode a motorcycle
That he'd drive down to the banks

Of the river in the summer
With Maria Sugarcane


And how they loved each other
And that love was wild as hope
And none would come between them

But my father's wandering ghost
And I had seen him beat her
Time and time before

But as I loved my brother
I loved Maria so much more


Well, I loved her young and pretty
And I loved her wild and strong
And I'd never loved another

I'd loved her for so long
And never would I hurt her
Never see her meet with harm

When I told her how I'd found him
She fell into my arms


Well, I told her how I'd found him
Down there by the river banks
That the angels were around him

But that I was just too late
And they carried him off to heaven
With my father's sins and all

But I did not hear the shot
And I did not see him fall


And Maria loved my brother
With her purest, bluest eyes
And he carried it in paper

And it never left his side
And I married her two summers past
The year my brother died

And though sometimes I hear her
I've never seen her cry


And I know Maria loves me
But it just ain't the same
As the way she loved my brother

In those summers on the banks
Of the river long since dried up
Maria Sugarcane

In the south end of the county
Near the highway and the trains


In the south end of the county
Near the highway and the trains
There's a river long since dried up

But a river just the same
And that's where I found my brother
And Maria's one true love

I knew that I would kill him
And Maria, she would come


In the corner of the graveyard
Near the spot my brother lays
Far past the noble families

Two more plots are saved
When I and fair Maria
Have seen our final days
May they bury her between us
Maria Sugarcane