Category Archives: Pegasus

Bits of String

Music & Lyrics: Marie-Lynn Hammond

I was only the neighbour, I barely knew her
fifty years of living with the curtains drawn
after she died they went through her things
in one moment all her secrecy gone

the auctioneer leads me through overstuffed rooms
crammed ceiling to floor with antiques and junk
the kind of packrat hoardings that he’s seen before
in box and bag and trunk

but here in the kitchen something stops him dead
here is what finally makes him shake his head
an old biscuit tin with a hand-lettered label
that he holds out for me to peruse
and it says “bits of string too short to use”
bits of string too short to use

oh what shadows must have haunted her fragile dreams
what demons of fear, what wolf at the door
howling “Waste not want not, fill up all the spaces”
till there’s no room to want any more

for sure enough when I lift up the rusty lid
brief little circles of cord and twine
what makes someone hold on to their everything
what makes me hold on to mine?

oh I thought we were different as day and night
I could have sworn I was travelling light
but see what I’m trailing, seems that lifelines and shackles
are easy to confuse
bits of string too short to use
bits of string too short to use

and these lives that we live full of hurting and passion
the blood and the battles, the rapture and lust
yet it’s the stones that contain them remain in the end
while we crumble to handfuls of dust

but oh how we hunger for something to last,
to conjure up gold from the murk of the past
but so often we’re left bearing nothing but scars
or these fragments and shards from the muse

they’re only bits of string too short to use
bits of string too short to use

Great Black Crow

Music & Lyrics: Marie-Lynn Hammond
For my mother, Marie-Thérèse (1919–1998)

great black crow in a white birch tree
sun pours gold on a brand new day
great black crow looks down at me
mama’s spirit has flown away

mama never got to see the spring
the buds remain all tightly furled
mama’s spirit has taken wing
and gone we hope to a brighter world

we kept watch through the dark and deep
but mama never liked to trouble us, so
she waited till her girls gave in to sleep
then she slipped away with the great black crow

mama didn’t have a lot of earthly goods
we packed her things in an old suitcase
I kept a little statue ’cause she’d said I could
of the Virgin Mary with a sad, chipped face

mama should have lived in the south of France
and spent her time writing poems and plays
mama deserved a long romance
and a peaceful passing in her final days

once there was a shining girl
with a feathered hat and a rhinestone ring
she beams for the camera and out at the world
she can’t wait to see what her life will bring

above the lake the crows fly wild
the wind churns endless waves to foam
and now I am a motherless child
a long, long, long, long way from home
long way from home

Chestnut Mare

Music & Lyrics: Marie-Lynn Hammond

everybody said now you gotta beware
you’ll have nothing but trouble with a chestnut mare
it’s the same kinda thing we’ve all heard said
about women and girls with hair of red

they’ve got a fiery temper, ’cause their blood’s so hot
they’re real darn stubborn and they fight a lot
well I’ve never paid attention to that old folklore
but I’m starting to believe in it a little bit more

Chorus:
oh she’s a naughty little horse that chestnut mare
she’s a naughty little horse but I don’t care
’cause she moves so fine and she looks so fair
I went ahead and bought the little chestnut mare

her mood can change like the weather in fall
she will nuzzle your face when you enter her stall
then she’ll turn around and pin her ears right back
she will step on your foot and try to eat her tack

ten minutes later she’s as good as gold
her trot is willing and her canter bold
with a mouth like butter and a back so round
you feel like you’re floating above the ground

there are horses to be had that are free of vice
they will jog in a circle as meek as mice
but they’ve got no soul, there’s nothing there
I wouldn’t trade the lot for my chestnut mare

Chorus

well my friends all shake their heads and say
you sure don’t pick the straight and easy way
no, I guess I live in a different mode
besides you never get bored with a winding road

and there’s nothing that’s certain in life but change
oh and if there’s a god then he’s awful strange
he lets little kids suffer and good folk die
while the bad go free and you’ll never know why

no there ain’t no reason and there ain’t no rhyme
just a random pattern that weaves through time
you never know what’s comin’, that’s the way it goes
and the chestnut mare keeps me on my toes

Chorus

Tropical Valentine

Music & Lyrics: Marie-Lynn Hammond

if I wanted to show you how I felt
I couldn’t send chocolate ’cause it would melt
long before I even dropped it in the mail
’cause I’m down south in the Caribbean
you’re up north where you’re probably seein’
nothing but 20 below and snow or hail
so instead of chocolate I’m sending this note
with all my love and that’s all she wrote, except for one last line
x x x x oh oh oh – your tropical Valentine

if you wanted a token of my love
I couldn’t send you a snow-white dove
’cause the doves on the island all come in shades of brown
did they fly down here to rest and tan
kinda like me and my original plan
hey I wasn’t supposed to lose my heart before leaving town
so instead of a dove I’m sending this note
with all my love and that’s all she wrote, except for one last line
x x x x oh oh oh — your tropical Valentine

and the waves roll in and the waves roll out
and I watch and I try to figure it out
they say if you learn to meditate
you can transcend this physical state
and that used to sound just fine
till your very physical lips met mine!

and I can’t send flowers to show I care
orchids and hibiscus need tropical air
you know I’m starting to feel myself like some tropical plant
and knowing now what I didn’t know then
I wonder can I ever go home again
’cause even if you want to, they say sometimes you can’t
so instead of flowers I’m sending this note
to urge you to hop on a plane or a boat

’cause the waves roll in and the waves roll out
and maybe that’s what it’s really all about
so if this old world is all we’ve got
I guess I’m saying I prefer it hot
so come on down here and be mine
x x x x oh oh oh your tropical Valentine