Blue Eyelids

i've never touched a woman
who wasn't a princess or a queen
and i suppose i started out very Spanish
but ended completely unseen
i once was thought to be European
another time considered perfectly Korean
with blue eyelids and drinking like a hole
i held a cigarette in each hand
and had a tattooed dove on every finger
it made me difficult to understand
these birds flew uneasily over a woman in red
her face of legendary beauty looked perfectly dead
shortly before her death, she gave me a bag of jewels
to buy a new dress
but i have to confess
i pinched her little mouth and kept the money
i bought a souvenir bayonet and jar of honey
so she sang a sad song
about all the men who done her wrong
the settling of accounts and broken jaw
she took her time and touched them all:
her lords and masters when the moon was full;
she took it in stride but i thought it cruel.
i kept a respectful distance watching from a castle tower
while her story unfolded
late into an early morning hour.
and i still remember that night:
i zig-zagging down the road aiming my light
trying to make it to the next scene
dreaming of a princess or a queen
without a royal kingdom or a spoiled child:
a woman who drove men wild.