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Mandarin Oranges

by Tom Russell

on Heart on a Sleeve (Remastered) (1984)

At a table in Juarez a woman named Dolores is drinking
I see the tear in her eye and I like to pretend what she's thinking
She's dreaming of Goimar and a cottage for two by the sea
And mandarin oranges and Mexican lemongrass tea

I married Dolores twenty-one years ago, Sunday
And Dolores she left me twenty-one years ago, Monday
I remember the laughter and the last midnight feast by the sea
Of mandarin oranges and Mexican lemongrass tea

And I think of her often, my friends ask what she means to me
I say, mandarin oranges and Mexican lemongrass tea

Back here in Juarez, I work at my job, waiting tables
And I long to go speak to her, somehow I don't think I'm able
But afraid she will know me as I ask her, what shall it be
She smiles, mandarin oranges and Mexican lemongrass tea

We should return to Goimar and the cottage for two by the sea
And the mandarin oranges and Mexican lemongrass tea