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After She Died


Most all the color drained out of the landscape
You hardly ever saw the wild things
Foxes, deer, the small striped squirrels
Nuts didn't ripen on the trees
Trout vanished from the streams
Rain didn't fall
We did everything we could think of
Everything that did not go against Her law
But the crops died, children dwindled
Her temple's roof fell in
When a terrible wind came out of the west

Finally, we found a seventh daughter
She went into the wood, high in the mountains
Traveled everywhere, looking for a new Goddess
And we were dying

We were few and feeble
When at last she came back to us
She shook her head sady
She had found nothing
Hope sank into the sand
But that evening a warm rain fell
Bit by bit, things returned to life and health
When we rebuilt the temple
The Seventh Daughter took up residence there