Carl Watanabe's "where the uplands roll"....a beautiful ballad about a botched abortion....


if you say my name where the uplands roll
and the answer you get ain't very kind
they'll be spoken by my hard friends of old
and my hard friends of old, I don't mind

I met a green eyed girl where the chaparral rolls
and grows high up to meet the yellow pine
her name and age best be unknown
it's enough just to say she once was mine

she was fair but her ways were much fairer yet
and her laughter could dance against the wind
her manner charmed everyone that she met
'til they held her as dear as next of kin

each young man placed his wealth and his soul in her hand
but none of them could be so proud
for she did choose a stranger to the land
and she came to me with her head bowed

our wedding day would come when the spring flowers bloomed
like two horses we danced into the sun
the stallion pranced and the mare would follow
before our wedding day a child would come

soldiers kill and we honor them with fortune and fame
but a baby who's harmed not one life
but is early to come is bathed full in shame
so must die unborn to a doctor's knife

as the doctor took our unborn babe
seeds of sorrow took root upon her mind
in her body the poison from his unwashed blade
left a wound who's cure we'd never find

so if you say my name where the uplands roll
and the answer you get ain't very kind
they'll be spoken by my hard friends of old
and my hard friends of old, I don't mind

but if they say not a word about me at all
but are reminded of a young girl once so fine
then listen close to the words that they recall
and they'll tell you of a girl who once was mine