The Ballad Of Miss Amelia

(album: Lover, Beloved: Songs From An Evening With Carson McCullers - 2016)

On any southern afternoon
If anyone would care to look
A face appears inside a house
A terrible face
It is sexless
And white
It is dim
Like the faces
In dreams...

It's Miss Amelia
She's waiting by the window
Remembering the laughing
In the café down below

Once Miss Amelia
Married a man
She married Marvin Масу
No one could understand

She must have done it for the presents
'Cause she didn't like him much
And even on their wedding night
She wouldn't let him touch

Well, he hung around the doorways
Acting foolish with bliss
Until he came too close one day
She swung once with her fist

Miss Amelia was a strong woman
She was big and tall
Swung once and Marvin Масу
Well he fell against the wall

Now Miss Amelia is
Sitting by the shutters
Remembering the laughing
In the café long ago...

After Marvin Масу
Had long gone away
A little hunchback came to town
And this is strange to say

That Miss Amelia who had never loved
She fell in love with him
He was a skipping little troublemaker
Still she took him in

And so they lived together
And were happy for a time
Everybody came around
And they would drink and dine

Miss Amelia made a whiskey
It was fine and it was rare
Would warm a man into his soul
And show the writing there

Miss Amelia's story
Is simple and sad
Marvin Масу, he returned to town
With all the evil that he had

The skipping little hunchback
He was quite impressed
With Marvin Macy's history
Of robbery and the rest

I will not get specific
But just let it now be said
There was terrible fight one night
And Miss Amelia was ahead
Until the little hunchback
Jumped in on Marvin Macy's side

Everybody all agreed
That's the night the café died

On any southern afternoon
If anyone would care to look
A face appears inside a house
A terrible face
It is sexless and white
It is dim
Like the faces
In dreams

It's Miss Amelia
She's waiting by the window
Remembering the laughing
In the café down below

It's Miss Amelia
Sitting by the shutters
Remembering the laughing
In the café long ago...