Strange Fruit

  Southern trees      Bearing strange fruit   Blood on the leaves      And blood at the root   Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze     Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees                Pastoral scene of the gallow south           And the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth   The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh   Then the sudden smell of        burning flesh                      Here is a fruit  for the crows to pluck   For the rain to gather   For the wind to suck   For the sun to rot   For the trees          to drop   Here is a strange  and bitter crop