it was the year of our father nineteen hundred and seventy six in ja when i first met my mary quite contrary to what my mother did say she was a mountain girl come to spanish town i was only there for a while but when i think back on all the love we shared i just can t but help to smile we spent one whole long year together and at the end i had to go by my mary s side i wept and cried i d never been laid so low she said boy when you first met me you were as green as a mango tree hmm but now you are a man go back to your land but first listen carefully you can smoke two pounds of cali herb by yourself then try to stand on your head no matter how high you get you ll never forget the wonders of mary s bed now my mary s sweet smell was in my nose and her vision it robbed me blind and as i crossed the sea it occurred to me that i left myself behind she was my natural mystic sweet sugarplum i still ask why did i go they say your first love is your hardest love and i d have to say that s so and it s a day and another day and a way and another way had a family once but they re gone now it don t strike me as weird there s grey in my beard but her words still linger on now there s nothing for me left here cept some broken dreams disappointments i ve had a few but there s this place i know where the mangroves grow and there s just one thing left to do i ll go back to my mary s bed plant a kiss on her head and pretend that time just stood still then i can live out my life like it should have been and the rest will be what it will so i went back to the bar where we first met asked the bartender where could she be and as he poured me a beer he said last year she left this world peacefully then every man in the bar looked at me they said old man don t you see that we were all touched by mary just like you now she lives on in our memories and we all can smoke two pounds of cali herb by ourselves then try to stand on our heads no matter how high we get we ll never forget the wonders of mary s bed and we can run two hundred miles through a ganja field until all we see is red and we can shout it out were still thinking about the wonders of mary s bed and so we sing jump around sweet mary you know we all have to move along you never know what you ve got in this cruel world until you realize it s gone