William Walton — Long Steel Grass

Long steel grass The white soldiers pass The light is braying like an ass See The tall Spanish jade With hair black as nightshade Worn as a cockade Flee Her eyes gasconade Her gown's parade As stiff as a brigade Tee-hee The hard and braying light Is zebra'd black and white It will take away the slight And free Tinge of mouth organ sound Oyster-stall notes oozing round Her flounces as they sweep the ground The Trumpet and the drum And the martial cornet come To make the people dumb But we Won't wait for sly-foot night Moonlight, watered milk-white, bright To make clear the declaration Of our Paphian vocation Beside the castanetted sea Where stalks Il Capitano Swaggart braggadocio Sword and mustachio He Is green as a cassada And his hair is an armada To the jade: "Come kiss me harder" He called across the battlements as she Heard our voices thin and shrill As the steely grasses' thrill Or the sound of the onycha When the phoca has the pica In the palace of the queen Chinee