Annie's Luck

Words and music Copyright ©1999 by Catherine Faber- All rights Reserved
Used by Permission

Annie loves the river, Annie loves the hills,
The silence and the freedom and the whippoorwills...
If the Psi Cops catch her, it's prison or the Corps;
The farthest she will ever see is down the corridor.

She works in Search and Rescue; it's "Annie's luck" we've had
When folks are hurt, or missing, with the weather turning bad.
She knows which trail to follow; she knows which hill to climb;
Annie has a special knack for finding them in time.

Annie leaves a letter, to say she has to go
She's sorry; she's a telepath, and now the Psi Cops know.
She's headed for the forest; they tell us "that's your beat;"
We try to lead them wrong, but we find out that Psi Cops cheat.

Too late we would defy them; we see her brought to bay;
A wild thing trapped and trembling where the canyon drops away
Surrounded by the Psi Cops, with no place left to go
But a hundred feet of nothing to the river far below.

The Psi Cop says "there's drugs to damp the talents that you had.."
The look she gets then makes me think those must be pretty bad.
I could weep for Annie, she looks so damn bereft--
He says "prison, or the Corps; those are the only choices left."

The Psi Cop shouts "wait, Annie!" just as Annie turns, and dives...
The river in that canyon gives bodies back, not lives.
She seems to fall forever, her open arms outspread,
The river white below her, like a rocky wedding bed.

The Psi Cop's face is granite, all triumph from it fled;
They drag the river, walk the banks, before they call her dead.
We've never found the body, don't think we will, somehow--
However it worked out, our Annie's got her freedom now.

Annie loves the forest, Annie loves the sky,
The way you see forever when you're way up high...
We put a marker up for her, the Psi Cop even came.
You can see damn near forever there, and the river speaks her name.