My heart cried like a beaten child
  Ceaselessly all night long;
I had to take my own cries
  And thread them into a song.
One was a cry at black midnight
  And one when the first c*ck crew—
My heart was like a beaten child,
  But no one ever knew.
Life, you have put me in your debt
  And I must serve you long—
But oh, the debt is terrible
  That must be paid in song.