Gulf Winds

It's only when the high winds blow that I wish my hair was long Sailing through the autumn leaves singing an ancient song Or falling in love in the streets at night at the edge of a local square It's only that I'm here tonight thinking I was there There are high winds on the pier tonight, my soul departs from me Striding like Thalia's ghost south on the murky sea And into midnight's tapestry she fades, ragged and wild Searching down her ancestry in the costume of a Persian child And gulf winds bring me flying fish that shine in the crescent moon Show me the horizon where the dawn will break anew And cool me here on this lonely pier where the heron are flying low Echo the songs my father knew in the towns of Mexico When I was young my eyes were wise, my father was good to me Instead of having a flock of sons he had two other girls and me And if we had used our Spanish names, here's the way they'd run Thalia, Margarita and Juanita, I'm the middle one The screen door kept the demons in as we moved from town to town It's hard to be a princess in the States when your skin is brown And mama smoothed my worried brow as I leaned on the kitchen door Why do you carry the weight, she said, of the world and maybe more And gulf winds bring me flying fish that shine in the crescent moon Show me the horizon where the dawn will break anew And cool me here on this lonely pier where the heron are flying low Echo the songs my father knew in the towns of Mexico My grandfathers were ministers and it came on down the line My father preached in his parents' church when he was ten years and nine And mama dressed in parishoners' clothes and didn't believe in hell Her daddy fought the DAR, if he'd lived I'd have known him well They said go find a Sunday School, we must have tried them all I never stole from the silver plate, my sisters had more gall One preacher said sing out loud and clear, it's the only life you've got And the next one said be good on earth, you've another life at the feet of God And gulf winds bring me flying fish that shine in the crescent moon Show me the horizon where the dawn will break anew And cool me here on this lonely pier where the heron are flying low Echo the songs my father knew in the towns of Mexico My father turned down many a job just to give us something real It's hard to be a scientist in the States when you've got ideals And mama kept the budget book, she kept the garden, too Bought fish from the man on Thursday, fed all of us and strangers, too But time will pass and so, alas, will most of what we know Though tonight my memory's eye is clear as the story's being told And I'll play ball with the underdog and sit with the child who's wrong Be still when the earth is silent and sing when my strength is gone And gulf winds bring me flying fish that shine in the crescent moon Show me the horizon where the dawn will break anew And cool me here on this lonely pier where the heron are flying low Echo the songs my father knew in the towns of Mexico Now father's going to India sometime in the fall They tried to stay together but you just can't do it all I'll think about him if he goes, there's a little grey in his hair Though not much because he's Mexican, they don't age, they just prepare And if he goes to India I'll miss him most of all He'll see me in the mudlarks' face, hear me in the beggar's call And mama will stay home, I guess, and worry if she did wrong And I'll say a prayer for both of them and sing them both my song And gulf winds bring me flying fish that shine in the crescent moon Show me the horizon where the dawn will break anew And cool me here on this lonely pier where the heron are flying low Echo the songs my father knew in the towns of Mexico