PLAGUE IN THE CITY
He was a thief, they punished him for stealing – In the tower’s shadow they cut off his hands / In the street a red-haired actress was acting & a vendor with black eyes sold blood oranges / The Daughters of Voodoo in their bright bandannas / Were casting lots in the dirt / And Mad Louisa at the gates of the market was pretending not to hear the soldier’s dirty words / Antelope priests circled the village led by the Bishop of Antioch / The Cup Bearer looked ill but nobody noticed as he took a sip from the golden cup / “Papa, don’t go!” shouted the orphan girl as she spotted a man on a gray dapple mare / But he didn’t hear her, he had his mind on the world / He was going to buy some hunting dogs at the fair / There’s a Plague in the City / I hear the sound of bells in the streets / This is no place for Gypsies / Make haste my Love – Let us flee! / There was a young minstrel with a voice like honey / On the cathedral stairs he was eating some fruit / When a Japanese woman came by in a buggy / She said, “O-Momo, May I play your ivory flute?” / The Spaniard laughed three times, gave his horse to the squire / He took off his armor & threw it to the street / He was still laughing when he put his sword to the blacksmith’s fire / And he pointed to the punctured holes in his hands & feet / Snake Dancers at the Blue Flute Altar / Were feasting on squash & sweet melon / One of them claimed the Earth for the Creator / Her gaze was fixed on the flight of the snowy heron / “Papa, don’t go!” shouted the orphan girl / To a nervous man standing in front of the jail / He grasped the pentangle round his neck most desperately as he was tempted with still another mug of ale /...Three Mystical Sisters were bathing at the well / While white-haired monkeys ran circles in the dust / Valiant women all, their eyes burned of Wisdom / As they watched the monkeys spin like chariots / Night fell like a mantle on the towered city / Rumors of cannibalism spread through the dark / Slaves with burning torches set fire to the prison / For inside the Plague had left its merciless mark /…An angel with a twisted wing shouted a warning / His words like a trumpet blast loud & true / They took him alive & showed him no mercy / They live in the dark & know not what they do / The Mystical Sisters, unashamed & naked / drew magical pictures in the air / While the orphan girl went in search of the minstrel / She saw no one at the cathedral stairs /…“Papa, don’t go!” a third time she cried / To an African bard with a ring in his ear / As a woman in terror dove from a balcony / She couldn’t bear her reflection in the empty mirror / Stampeding horses ran through the temple / A phoenix flew over the dome / And a thief with no hands turned away in his agony / As an Egyptian slave set the torch to his home…