Drinking a cup of alligator blood
Tastes like the heads and feet we'd see
For sale at the local pawn
We'd make necklaces out of
I'd wear them round my neck
I'm a sucker for the love of the flesh
All things rancid and delicate
But the smell in the summer heat
It still gets to me

Knee-deep in the poacher's dream
He dragged that thing out back and he
Hung it upside down
Slit its belly open and let it bleed out
And he held my head and made me watch
He filled my mouth up with its blood and said
"Grow up weak or grow up tough"

Playing in the swamp of alligator blood
Behind our house in the marshy lawn
He'd always hold my head
Under the water a little too long
Cause he wanted me to be all guts, no glory
"All survivor, no guilt" he said
But he calls me his crocodile tears
While I'm chained up to the bed

Knee-deep in the poacher's dream
He dragged that thing out back and he
Hung it upside down
Slit its belly open and let it bleed out
And he held my head and made me watch
He filled my mouth up with its blood and said
"Grow up weak or grow up tough"

When I was done
Wiped my mouth on his sleeve
I fucked the soul of the south but it crucified me