Magnolia Steel

Y'all want a Southern belle, all sugar-sweet and demure

Something fragile and pretty, something easy to secure

Well, I'm the wrong kinda flower from the wrong side of the track

Got thorns in my accent and a spine they couldn't crack

They drew their lines in the dirt, told me where I belong

Wrote the rules in their favor, sang the same old hateful song

Told me, "Girl, know your place," I said, "Okay, I will"

My place is at the head of the table, send your king the bill.

They thought the heat would make me wilt, the pressure make me break

They don't know this Delta dirt is all that it can take

To turn a pretty petal to a sharpened, jagged blade

From all the promises they broke and all the debts they never paid

I'm sweet like honeysuckle on a humid summer night

But mess with me or mine, and you'll see my damn true might

Don't get it twisted, darlin', this ain't luck, it's real

They wanted a magnolia, but they got magnolia steel.

This ain't for the men who think their opinion is the law

Or the pearl-clutchin' ladies who point out every flaw

This for the girls in the backwoods with fire in their eyes

Who are sick of being fed a plate of patriarchal lies

This for the woman at the counter workin' two damn jobs

Puttin' up with disrespect from all the angry mobs

We are the granddaughters of the witches they couldn't burn

Took their fire, made it ours, guess they'll ever gonna learn?

They thought the heat would make me wilt, the pressure make me break

They don't know this Delta dirt is all that it can take

To turn a pretty petal to a sharpened, jagged blade

From all the promises they broke and all the debts they never paid

I'm sweet like honeysuckle on a humid summer night

But mess with me or mine, and you'll see my damn true might

Don't get it twisted, darlin', this ain't luck, it's real

They wanted a magnolia, but they got magnolia steel.

For the daughters of the Delta, for the ones who fight alone

From the backwoods of Petal to the streets of Mobile stone

Down in New Orleans, they know a queen when they see one

This is for us, our season has begun.

So let 'em call us angry, let 'em call us loud and crass

Every time we rise, we're steppin' on the broken glass.

Magnolia Steel. Unbreakable. For real.