My Name Is Mary               words and music by Bill Pere

  The moonlight tried to caress her
  But couldn't find a happy place to reflect
  Painted eyes and lips laced with lipstick
  Could not make up for a life of neglect
  Pale blue eyes, just like mine  told me somehow this one wasn't the same
  Though I'd had so many girls before
  This time I asked her name....

           She said   
           "My name is Mary, that's the name given me by my Dad
            I never knew him; That's not the only name that I've had.
            My mother called me worthless,
            Useless good for nothing;   Nothing but bad;  
            My name is Mary; My name is Mary
            But you can just call me sad..."

 I stood there and stared out the window
 As she waited alone by the bed
  The faint evening flickers of neon
  Flashed a memory flood through my head
  I looked back fifteen years when the one thing that I loved in this world 
  Was taken away when my wife left me
  And took my little girl...

  No, it wasn't a heaven made marriage 
  Too much booze, not enough love
   I've been praying for a chance to start over,
   But I though a guy like me had no friends above.
   Then those deep pale blue eyes cut right through my thoughts  like a   knife...
  "What'cha waitin' for? Am I not good enough?
   That's the story of my life..." 

           She said   
           "My name is Mary, that's the name given me by my Dad
            I never knew him; That's not the only name that I've had.
            My mother called me worthless,
            Useless good for nothing;   Nothing but bad;  
            My name is Mary; My name is Mary
            But you can just call me sad..."

   This was all I could ever have hoped for.
   The answer to this lonely man's prayer.
   Would it be cruelness, would it be kindness?
   Should I tell her? Would it even be fair?
   But I knew it couldn't hurt  any more than the empty life we both led  
   And when I told her she was my little girl,
   She hugged me when I said...

    "Her name is Mary, She never knew I was her Dad...
     I never knew her and that's not the only name that she's had...
    When I think of how I love her,
     That feeling has kept me from feeling alone.
     Her name is Mary; Her name is Mary, but I still call her my own..." 

© 1992 Bill Pere.  All Rights Reserved

"If a man tried to take his time on earth and prove before he died what one man's life could be worth,  I wonder what would happen to this world?"  --- Harry Chapin