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Sad Waters

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Down the road I look and there runs Mary

Hair of gold and lips like cherries

We go down to the river where the willows weep

Take a naked root for a lovers seat

That rose out of the bitten soil

But sound to the ground by creeping ivy coils

O Mary you have seduced my soul

And I don't know right from wrong

Forever a hostage of your child's world





And then I ran my tin-cup heart along

The prison of her ribs

And with a toss of her curls

That little girl goes wading in

Rollin her dress up past her knee

Turning these waters into wine

Then she platted all the willow vines





Mary in the shallows laughing

Over where the carp dart

Spooked by the new shadows that she cast

Across these sad waters and across my heart