From the first day I saw her
She was the one
She stared in my eyes
And smiled
For her lips were
The colour of the roses
That grew down the river
All bloody and wild
When he knocked on my door
And entered the room
My trembling subsided
In his sure embrace
He would be my first man
And with a careful hand
He wiped at the tears
That ran down my face
They call me the Wild Rose
But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me that I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day
On the second day I brought her a flower
She was more beautiful
Than any woman I'd seen
I said: “Do you know
Where the wild roses grow
So sweet and scarlet and free?”
On the second day he came
With a single red rose
He said: “Give me your loss
And your sorrow”
I nodded my head as I lay on the bed
“If I show you the roses
Will you follow?”
On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard
Was a muttered word
As he knelt above me
With a rock in his fist
On the last day I took her
Where the wild roses grow
And she lay on the bank
The wind light as a thief
And I kissed her goodbye
Said: “All beauty must die”
And I lent down
And planted a rose between her teeth