She Is Gone

                Words and music by Catherine Faber


She is dressed for sin, in a blouse so thin
With her hair like sunlit flame
Fifteen years old, looking scared and cold
And Candy is her name.
Now a man drives by with a hungry eye
And a fifty dollar note.
And he drives her out, down a country route
With a jack-knife in his coat.

Chorus (after every verse):

     She is gone, she is gone,
     And the earth closed over her head.
     Like the ones before, just a worthless whore,
     Selling sin to buy her bread.

So intent is he that he does not see
That his quarry's fear has passed.
A fresh grave waits by the junkyard gates
The seventh and the last.
Now he lays her down on the cold damp ground
With the moss to make her bed,
Where the willow grieves, with its rustling leaves
Like the voices of the dead.

Now he stills her shout as the knife comes out
And he puts his face to hers:
"Six lives I fear I have taken here;
The seventh shall be yours."
But the small cold fist that grips his wrist
Has all his strength and more.
"Oh no," says she, "that shall not be--
For I've been here before."

"There are five," she sighs, "who stretch and rise,
To pay you for your tricks.
Beneath the firs where the grave dirt stirs,
For I was number six.
Chill and dumb from their graves they come,
To serve you in my stead.
And more besides, they shall be your brides
To grace your wedding bed."


Words and music copyright (c) 1993 by Catherine Faber

On ACTS OF CREATION tape, copyright (c) 1994 by Julia West
On AS GOOD AS ANY CD, copyright (c) 1999 by Catherine Faber and
Arlene "Callie" Hills