Annie's Luck
Lyrics and melody © 1999 by Catherine Faber
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.
We watch her 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.
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