Idgy Vaughn: Music

"Saint Francis Fire"

(Idgy Vaughn)

SAINT FRANCIS FIRE

Tinsel haloes, paper wings, things that burn too easily
Angels in a Christmas play
Twelve began to sing

Laura wasn’t looking and her gown went up in flames (in flames)
And she screamed and she fell and she pulled us all down
And the fire began to rage
The curtains rang down, the mothers rushed the stage
But helpless, the angles burned
As the nuns tried to beat out the flames
With their bare hands

And I shrilled, and I hurt, and I burned, and I died
Twelve of us died on the stage
Saint Francis Bethlehem play

Mary, Mary, Wilhelmina, Josephina, Margarteth
Olivia, Celia, Coletta, Irene, Mary, Mary
Bernadina was my Christian name
But my mama always called me her bird, her birdie girl

Sister Theotima lost both her hands, the burns had been so deep
Two thousand mourners bore twelve wooden boxes
To church on Christmas Eve
The priests intoned and the fathers wept with guilt and grief
And the mothers rocked with empty arms in shock and disbelief

And I cried for my family, but they couldn’t see
Twelve of us prayed to be saved
Saint Francis Bethlehem play

Christmas angels dance in rings
Jump the stones with tattered wings
Twenty years beneath the trees
Well, it’s not the same for me

The years drag by and less and less I see the ones that I love
They mumble their prayers as I fumble and stare
At what those years have done
The baby of my family, he has two little girls of his own
New faces I, I don’t recognize, they live where I belong

And I knew what I’d lost, what was mine, what was gone
Twelve of us lay in our graves
Saint Francis Bethlehem play

Tinsel haloes, paper wings, all that has been left for me
Eternity beneath the trees, well, it’s not the same for me

Mary, Mary, Wilhelmina, Josephina, Margarteth
Olivia, Celia, Coletta, Irene, Mary, Mary
Bernadina was my Christian name
But my mama always called me her bird, her birdie girl