Angel of Mercy
She sat at the bar, she called for a cider
her eyes hard as flint in a sun-freckled face
and I couldn’t reach her ‘tho I sat beside her
when she said that tomorrow she was leaving this place
to go out to work in the death camps of Africa
she was changing her life for the better, she said.
Not caring one damn as she watched my world crumble
into dreams freshly crushed and to hope newly dead.
chorus
Now she’s handing out food aid to totally black strangers
and she’s burying dead infants ‘neath African trees.
But his flinty-eyed freckle-faced Angel of Mercy
brings compassion to thousands and misery to me.
And here stands the fool who built his world round her
and promised her all she could possibly wish.
Who refused to believe when his friends tried to tell him
he was squandering his life on a cruel heartless bitch.
Who now stands appalled as he stares at the wasteland
she left in her wake when she savaged his schemes.
When the mask finally slipped she betrayed her true nature
a murderess of hearts and a rapist of dreams
In time I’ll forget that I ever loved her.
In time I’ll forget that she once made me cry.
In time I’ll forget who I am, where I came from
the mountains, the valleys, the rivers the sky.
In time I’ll forget, but that time won’t be coming
till the last spark of life in my body is stilled.
And I hope the good Christ in His Heaven forgives her
for in my heart of hearts, I know I never will.