:Sharron Kraus: :Songs:

Oh butterfly-man, what will you catch
With your net of the finest mesh-o?
Oh butterfly-man, what will you catch
With your net of the finest mesh-o?

I will catch me a girl with the bluest of eyes
And skin of the softest silk-o
Her skirts will be as bright as the peacock's wing
And dance for me she will-o

Oh butterfly-man, what will you do
If this girl to you won't be true-o?
Oh butterfly-man, what will you do
If this girl to you won't be true -o?

I will lock her away in the darkest of rooms
Where no other eye will see her
And her skirts will be as dull as the gray moth's wing
And she'll have only a candle to light her

Oh butterfly-man, what will you do
If she pines away and dies-o?
Oh butterfly-man, what will you do
If she pines away and dies-o?

I'll dress her body in the finest of clothes
And deck her hair with flowers
And ever she'll be true, my peacock girl
No other hand will touch her

Oh butterfly-man, what will you do
When the flesh rots from her body-o?
Oh butterfly-man, what will you do
When the flesh rots from her body-o?

I'll weave a new net from her golden hair
And I'll roam through the night and the day-o
And I'll catch me another peacock girl
Who will stay for the rest of my days-o

I pinched the tune for this song from a hornpipe called 'The Peacock's Feather', which seemed appropriate. It's one of the many songs I've written trying to get to grips with the tension between love and freedom.