Dorothy Parker - Prayer For a New Mother lyrics

The things she knew, let her forget again The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold The gaping shepherds, and the queer old men Piling their clumsy gifts of foreign gold Let her have laughter with her little one Teach her the endless, tuneless songs to sing Grant her her right to whisper to her son The foolish names one dare not call a king Keep from her dreams the rumble of a crowd The smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red The thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud That wraps the strange new body of the dead Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where mothers go And boast his pretty words and ways, and plan The proud and happy years that they shall know Together, when her son is grown a man