Take a hundred pounds of clay My friend And a hundred gallons of sea And forty days of wind and rain Behold the lemon tree The tree it bears a holy fruit A product of the earth Good book tells how the snake It s**ed the sweetness from the dirt Chorus The gods are laughing They watch us grappling What will we do with bitter lemons? How tart the apple How sweet the grape No where in Heaven are bitter lemons? A dozen packets of seeds My friend Six yards of midnight soil Build a fence to keep the voodoo away Mix vinegar with oil When the fruit begins to sprout I sensed the mighty power The tomatos sweet And red as a beet But the lemons have gone sour REPEAT CHORUS I took a pretty woman for my wife And dressed her in white lace I laid her on the bed of lilies Ran her like a race I squeezed the lemons in the jar Now I've got it made Mmmm... taste like sugar baby Sweet as lemonade REPEAT CHORUS