Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems  



Untitled

Notes: by Malvina Reynolds; previously unpublished.


Leave the small lake alone to reflect the sky
You can only mar it.
Nothing but rocks and pure water here
And some small innocent fishes,
And the reflection of waterworn cliffs ages old.
You can only soil it and mar it.

Wherever you put your hand, there is death,
Death and tin cans and neon signs,
And asphalt laid over the sweet loam
And the great trees go down before it.

Leave the small lake alone,
Live your painted, rackety life somewhere else,
Take over some place already scarred by man,
Leave the small lake alone.


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