She was so afraid   Since her mother, white with time,   Told her   She was a failure      She was so ashamed   Of everything she said   And everything she did   For her mother, white with time      Everything around her mother   White with time   And dirty   Her mother was greedy with dirt   Greedy      Then she heard choirs of angels   Singing choirs of angels   Greedy angels   Spitting glory on her failure   That stardust of failure   As if it was medicine that didn't work   Any way   Anyway   The windows   They were closed   And the midwives had locked their doors   They didn't understand   And after all, what was there to understand?    But the angels   Sheer choirs of angels   In a friendship   No, more than a friendship   It was a marriage   A marriage made in the grave      In the shivering night   The searching of the river continued   That bullet of searchlight   That searchlight   Found her so cockleshell and sure   Sick and tired of what she saw   But cockleshell and sure      Sure of what the world had offered a tired soul   From istanbul to madrid   From reykjavik, to bonn   To leipzig, to leningrad   To shanghai, pnonm penh   All so that it would be a stronger world   A strong, though loving, world   To die in