Shoe Shine Mamma

Spits for her money

Wants to make a living

Try to make her own



All she ever wanted was to

Make her own money and

Settle down on Silium's Hill



She prayed by the water on Manitou Bay

Sipping ambrosia on a holy night

Counting the lovers that had passed her way

They could not see her on Silium's Hill



On a frozen lamp pole I scratch her name

With my rusty old penknife

On a empty heart

Standing by the window, is that you out there

At the Southern Cross over Silium's Hill



Oh, baby will you ride with me

Through the wheat towns to Medicine Hat

When the cold winds blow I'll be there

I'll hang on tight, baby sure go for that



Now the old man knocks at my front door

Shoe Shine Mamma isn't here anymore

There's a stranger in my place

Looking out over Silium's Way



Listen to the humming of the railway cars

My hands frozen on the wheel

Six hundred miles away from home

Running on the shadow of Silium's Hill



Somewhere back on Church Street

Shoe Shine Mamma spits for her money

Trying to make a living, wanna make her own

Down at the bottom of Silium's Hill



Mamma wanna build her own

Down at the bottom of Silium's Hill