Just a little box all covered with
blossoms white as snow
Chinese red and made of brass
that he gave her long ago
Like the red dirt
Oklahoma hills and the
springtime flowering trees
That she kept with all the love they
shared inside her memory
She got it from her captain when
he sailed around the horn
Bringing gifts from
China to their
Oklahoma home
There were fancy silks and carved wood
chests from the places he had gone
She kept them all until she died,
but this was her favorite one
Just a little box all covered with
blossoms white as snow
Chinese red and made of brass
that he gave her long ago
Like the red dirt
Oklahoma hills and the
springtime flowering trees
That she kept with all the love they shared
inside her memory
And she kept it on her dresser filled
with gold and silver rings
Necklaces of turquoise,
beads, and other things
He filled her heart with the mystery
and the magic of the day
When he gave it to her for her
own in his quiet loving way
Ten years they were together,
he'd come home and then he'd leave
One day while she waited,
he disappeared at sea
No one knew how she'd call his name
to the silent rocks and stones
Or how she'd sit and hold that little buff
So she would not feel alone
Just a little buff, soft -covered
With blossoms white as snow
Shiny, red, and made of grass
That he gave her long ago
Like the red dirt,
Oklahoma hills
And the springtime flowering trees
That she kept with all the love they shared inside her
memory
No, she never was a dancer
or rode a fancy line
The treasures of her life
were the things
she left behind
They buried her without them
where the prairie
grasses grow
In
China, or a woman's heart,
there are places
no one knows
Just a little box all covered
with blossoms white as snow
Chinese red and made of brass
that he gave her long ago
Like the red dirt
Oklahoma hills
and the springtime flowering trees
that she kept with all the love
they shared inside her memories.
They buried her without them
where the prairie grasses grow.
In
China or a woman's heart,
there are places no one knows.