Still They Call it Marriage

Mother wanted me to marry -
she brought me a red-headed man,
she brought me a holy man.

I let down my hair.
I confessed to uttering spells.
Mother brought me an organ-grinder
who married me thinking I had money.

I had nothing but a good luck charm.
I had supernatural power.

I did not want to play the organ -
I had no wish to marry. I wanted to
dance with the young men in town -
I wanted to dance till they hunted me down.

-Susan Musgrave

(A Man to Marry, A Man to Bury,
McCelland and Stewart Limited
1979)