Joan Baez Gulf Winds

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

 

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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?

 
[chorus]
 

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 fought the DAR, if he'd lived I'd have known him well

 

They said go find a Sunday School, we must have tried them all

I never stole from the silver plate, my sisters had more gall

One preacher said sing out loud and clear, it's the only life you've got

And the next one said be good on earth, you've another life at the feet of God

 
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My father turned down many a job just to give us something real

It's hard to be a scientist in the States when you've got ideals

And mama kept the budget book, she kept the garden, too

Bought fish from the man on Thursday, fed all of us and strangers, too

 

But time will pass and so, alas, will most of what we know

Though tonight my memory's eye is clear as the story's being told

And I'll play ball with the underdog and sit with the child who's wrong

Be still when the earth is silent and sing when my strength is gone

 
[chorus]
 

Now father's going to India sometime in the fall

They tried to stay together but you just can't do it all

I'll think about him if he goes, there's a little grey in his hair

Though not much because he's Mexican, they don't age, they just prepare

 

And if he goes to India I'll miss him most of all

He'll see me in the mudlarks' face, hear me in the beggar's call

And mama will stay home, I guess, and worry if she did wrong

And I'll say a prayer for both of them and sing them both my song

 
[chorus]