Just a little box all covered with
blossoms white as snow
Chinese red and made of brass
that he gave her long ago
Like the red dirt
Oklahoma hills
and the springtime flowering trees
That she kept with all the love they
shared inside her memory
She got it from her captain
when he sailed around the Horn
Bringing gifts from China
to their Oklahoma home
There were fancy silks
and carved wood chests
from the places he had gone
She kept them all until she died,
but this was her favorite one.
Just a little box all covered with
blossoms white as snow,
Chinese red and made of brass
that he gave her long ago.
Like the red dirt
Oklahoma hills
and the springtime flowering trees
That she kept with all the love they shared
inside her memory
And she kept it on her dresser
filled with gold and silver rings
Necklaces of turquoise,
beads and other things
He filled her heart with the mystery
and the magic of the day
When he gave it to her for her own
in his quiet loving way
Ten years they were together,
he'd come home and then he'd leave
One day while she waited,
he disappeared at sea
No one knew how she'd call his name
to the silent rocks and stones
Or how she'd sit and hold that little box
so she would not feel alone
Just a little box all covered with
blossoms white as snow
Shiny as red and made of brass
that he gave her long ago
Like the red dirt
Oklahoma hills
and the springtime flowering trees
That she kept with all the love they shared inside her
memory
No, she never was a dancer
or wrote a fancy line
The treasures of her life
were the things she left behind
They buried her without them
where the prairie grasses grow
In China, or a woman's heart,
there are places no one knows
Just a little box all covered with
blossoms white as snow
Chinese red and made of brass
that he gave her long ago
Like the red dirt
Oklahoma hills
and springtime flowering trees
That she kept with all the love they
shared inside her memories
They buried her without them
where the prairie grasses grow
In China or a woman's heart
there are places no one knows
You