beeswing

i was 18 when i came to town they called it the summer of love

burning babies burning flags the hawks against the doves

i took a job at the steaming way down on caltrim st. fell in love with a laundry girl that was workin' next to me

brown hair zig zagged around her face and a look of half surprise

like a fox caught in the headlights there was animal in her eyes

she said to me

can't you see

i'm not the factory kind

if you don't take me out of here

i'll lose my mind

she was a rare thing

fine as a bee's wing

so fine a breath of wind might blow her away

she was a lost child

she was runnin' wild

so long as there's no price on love i'll stay

you wouldn't want me any other way

we busked around the market towns fruit pickin'

down in kent

we could tinker pots and pans or knives wherever we went

we were campin' down the gower and the work was mighty good

she wouldn't wait for the harvest

i thought we should

i said to her

we'll settle down

get a few acres dug

a fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug

she said

oh man you foolish man that surely sounds like hell

you might be lord of half the world

you'll not own me as well

she was a rare thing

fine as a bee's wing

so fine a breath of wind might blow her away

she was a lost child

she was runnin' wild

so long as there's no price on love i'll stay

you wouldn't want me any other way

we were drinking more in those days

our tempers reached a pitch

like a fool i let her run away when she took the rambling itch

and the last i heard she was living rough back on the derby beat

a bottle of white horse in her pocket

a wolfhound at her feet

they say that she got married once to a man called romany brown

even a gypsy caravan was too much like settlin' down

they say her rose has faded

rough weather and hard booze

maybe that's the price you pay for the chains that you refuse

she was a rare thing

fine as a bee's wing

i miss her more than ever words can say

if i could just taste all of her wildness now

if i could hold her in my arms today

i wouldn't want her any other way

if i could hold her in my arms today

i wouldn't want her any other way