Doe-Eyed Girl - Bambara

Way back

When Elsa was a little girl

She saw a deer in her yard

And she went over to take a peek

She waved at it through the glass

A gunshot cracked

And steaming blood fanned out around its kicking feet

Dead eyes staring

Dead eyes staring

Now she’s all grown, big-boned, and sweet

Dancing to her records late at night

When there’s no one around who might hear her

As she tries to sing

Fly strips along the walls

She twirls through the halls

Of buzzing wings

She puts on the clothes she likes to sleep in

Leaves the hall lights on bright

And falls nervous into dreaming

'Cause she knows what she’ll find

Staring back all blank and dead

She takes a hit and slides out of bed

Eh, huh!

You said Jack’s handsome and he’s dumb

Drinks at your father’s bar with all the scum

'Til his flushed face goes slack

He’s new in town

Came one night when it was raining

Bag full of blank notebooks on his back

And he’s always complaining

Yeah, he knows he’s a poet just uninspired

Says it’s his muse who is a fucking hack

Says the bitch must be sleeping on the job

Like some lazy god-slob

Don’t give a shit about her little Jack

He whistles for another round

Elsa’s walking down the street

Jack sees her through the glass and winks

Elsa smiles back from the crosswalk

Huh!

Brakes squealing and screeching

Jack runs to the Cadillac

Sees Elsa gurgling beneath it

Her eyes stare dead-blank

Rolling round in her twitching head

Like a dumb animal he thinks

And the beauty overwhelms him

Yeah, huh!

Yeah!

He writes and writes and writes

He writes and writes and writes

He writes a title on the page

«Doe-Eyed Girl» it says