Rita Dove - Canary lyrics

For Michael S. Harper Billie Holiday's burned voice had as many shadows as lights, a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano, the gardenia her signature under that ruined face. (Now you're cooking, drummer to ba**, magic spoon, magic needle. Take all day if you have to with your mirror and your bracelet of song.) Fact is, the invention of women under siege has been to sharpen love in the service of myth. If you can't be free, be a mystery.