The Maiden’s Eye

[Verse 1]
Katy was a pretty girl, Katy only had one eye
Katy always seemed to wink at all the fellers passing by
She let him have a ride from Nacogdoches down to Dallas
She told him how she loved the way that Tommy Duncan crooned
He touched her on the face and his hands were rough and calloused
She smelled like bougainvillea in the bloom

[Verse 2]
How I wished that I'd know Katy; one more chance that I might try
How I wished I'd winked at Katy: I was young and far too shy
When he told her he would kill her, it must've set him thinking
Must've made him nervous, turned him whiter than the tomb
His hands around her throat and her eye just a-winking
And the smell of bougainvillea in the bloom

[Bridge]
Twilight must've fallen; evening shadows must've found them
There beneath the stars, a pretty maiden with one eye
He tightened up his grip and with her good eye she fixed him
And the maiden's prayer turned into a sigh

[Verse 3]
On the day they buried Katy, folks in town began to cry
Propped up in her pauper's casket, winked at mourners passing by
She was found at Corpus Christi when the waters had subsided
Ebbing to the Gulf with the passage of the moon
The sheriff told the papers that his hounds had been guided
By the smell of bougainvillea in the bloom