Occasionally I will write a song that is a story – not about anything true but perhaps conveying something someone will recognize.  That is the case in the song Amber Lee.

This song was born on the night before Valentine’s Day several years ago, when I was sewing bead eyes on some little lizards I had made, from rainbow colored fleece, to be Valentine’s Day presents for my kids.  As it happened, the beads were amber.  So the line came up, with its tune: Amber Lee has amber eyes.  The rest of the words came, in bike rides over subsequent weeks, to fill in the tune.  No real person behind this – just a story that arose from lizard eyes:

Amber Lee 

has amber eyes

shining out like some bright prize

If you want to understand, you must

be wise

Amber Lee,

what satisfies you?

Amber Lee

has honey hair

shot with gold like some deep prayer

if you want to go within, you must

be there

Amber Lee, 

what makes you care?

Amber Lee

has limbs of fire

laced throughout with swift desire

all the worlds that bend to her

she could acquire

Amber Lee,

what takes you higher?

©Wendy Mulhern