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 foug
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