Cactus Tree

(album: Song To A Seagull - 1968)

There's a man who's been out sailing
In a decade full of dreams
And he takes her to a schooner
And he treats her like a queen
Bearing beads from California
With their amber stones and green

He has called her from the harbor
He has kissed her with his freedom
He has heard her off to starboard
In the breaking and the breathing
Of the water weeds

While she was busy being free

There's a man who's climbed a mountain
And he's calling out her name
And he hopes her heart can hear
Three thousand miles he calls again
He can think her there beside him
He can miss her just the same

He has missed her in the forest
While he showed her all the flowers
And the branches sang the chorus
As he climbed the scaly towers
Of a forest tree

While she was somewhere being free

There's a man who's sent a letter and he's waiting for reply
He has asked her of her travels since the day they said goodbye
He writes, "Wish you were beside me, we can make it if we try."

He has seen her at the office
With her name on all these papers
Through the sharing of the profits
He will find it hard to shake her
From his memory

And she's so busy being free

There's a lady, in the city
And she thinks she loves them all
There's the one who's thinking of her
There's the one who sometimes calls
There's the one who writes her letters
With his facts and figures scrawl

She has brought them to her senses
They have laughed inside her laughter
Now she rallies her defenses
For she fears that one will ask her
For eternity

And she's so busy being free

There's a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
There's a jouster and a jester
And a man who owns a store
There's a drummer, and a dreamer
And you know there may be more

She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree

While she's so busy being free

Like a cactus tree
Being free