In the
land of
Maracuja there lived a foreign girl
She imagined that the natives
would liken her to pearl
With her rare and whitened body so long,
it skimmed the moon.
With fingers fair and narrow,
the strange yellow hair she grew.
I'll need no weapons here,
though I've heard the men are wild.
Their skin is colored globe,
and they feed on fear and guile.
For when they see my passing,
my head above the sun,
They'll take me for a spirit,
and to their tribes they'll run.
Crying, we have seen the
river's daughter,
For her eyes are silver fish,
And her movement is like water.
We must gather up our children
Down by the water place,
And with finest skins and chieftain's bones,
Make a temple to her face.
And the girl inside her shelter,
Built near the river's flow,
Awaiting their coming,
her thoughts began to slow.
An d in the jungle's darkness,
a circle grew around,
Its teeth like funeral stones,
its hands swift falling down,
To still her feathered breathing
With slightest silent care
They killed her for her dif
ference in innocence
But they kept her yellow hair