The Child

Lyrics

[Verse 1] And the child has found his way to the spring With no one to lead him by hand Through the briars and brambles and nettles that sting He follows each step of her plan And the mother who washes her clothes by hand Looks up as the cranes cross the sky As the old woman battles the chill on the strand A shell that is left by the tide [Verse 2] And the child's built a boat to sail on the river To play pretty prince to the queen And the play is so real as to cause her to shiver Abandoned in the bulrushes unseen And the mother who watches the ocean for help For the boats filled with sweet Spanish wine As the old woman hobbles her way to the well To draw up the flow with her line [Verse 3] And the child runs the beach with the horse-hooves of thunder With his sword he does battle the waves With abandon each thrust has now drawn him under No thought and no spell can now save And the mother who's left to watch o'er the spring Looks up as the horsemen pass by As the old woman tends the boat as she sings And opens her hand for the tithe [Verse 4] In the time between time, in the light before dawn When the devil gets his due on the grass And the sweet Spanish wine lays spilled on the lawn The sound on the wind does not last In the time between time when the moon is at full When love lies hobbled in the hay By this water with no source and no force and no pull By this water we are all washed away