Anna

Anna stares out of the window
 It's her eighty-fifth spring
 She tries to concentrate on something
 Her face is strained and she's confused
 At the walls in this room
 And all the strangers standing around her chair
 They brought her photographs in frames
 They are using her name
 But she just smiles politely at their embrace
 And Anna
 Introduces herself again
 A man picks up her hand
 And says, "Anna, look, the spring has come"
 And your carousel is waiting
 It's 1925 in New Orleans
 You are in your favorite dress
 Your brother is at your dad's hand
 And you're on your way to the Harborfest
 There will be apples on sticks and fish stands
 And you'll get to wave at the passing ships
 And your daddy will buy you something
 At the end
 And Anna tries to form a thought
 But at the end she's forgotten where she started from
 There's something she would like to say
 But the words in her head seem to have got away
 Can Anna come out and play
 And over all that is inside her
 A curtain is closing in her deep brown eyes
 Well, it's like someone's built a wall
 And through the very last cracks
 Anna extends her hand and a little girl calls
 "Please don't let me fall"
 It's 1925 in New Orleans
 You are in your favorite dress
 Your brother is at your dad's hand
 And you're on your way to the Harborfest
 There will be apples on sticks and fish stands
 And you'll get to wave at the passing ships
 And your daddy will buy you something
 At the end
 Well, there's so much you must have witnessed
 As the whole world changed, child
 At the onset of the Jazz Age
 And it was long before Elvis
 And rock and roll
 They told you, "There will be music
 You just wait"
 It's 1925 in New Orleans
 You are in your favorite dress
 Your brother is at your dad's hand
 And you're on your way to the Harborfest
 There will be apples on sticks and fish stands
 And you'll get to wave at the passing ships
 And your daddy will buy you something
 At the end
 What do you think of it all
 As you are so small
 Under your blanket here in this hospital
 I love you
 Tell your bones not to let go
 But your heart is beating slowly now
 The spring has come
 But one small leaf was falling, falling, falling