"She Heard with Her Ears"
lyrics by Benjamin Newman
ttto: "They Spoke with Their Hands" by Cat Faber

/ Em - Am - / Em - C Am / Dm F C Am / G Em Am F /

The lights of the harbor grew bright as we neared.
We landed in silence, we needn't have feared...
It was only our torches that gave us away:
These people can't hear a damn thing that we say!

	They spoke with their hands and we thought it was odd;
	We thought they were cripples, they thought we were gods,
	But we're really just scoundrels who take what we can
	From an island where everyone speaks with their hands

We proved we were friends when we found a lost horse.
Then we taught them to gamble -- we cheated, of course.
We schemed right behind them and never were heard...
In time we would come to regret every word.

	They spoke with their hands and they heard with their eyes,
	And surely they'd never hear through our disguise --
	But one seemed to notice that something was wrong...
	We thought she was deaf; we were blind all along,

That girl must have thought it was some kind of joke.
We never suspected, for she never spoke.
She figured at once we were up to no good,
So she listened and listened 'til she understood.

	She heard with her ears and she learned our tongue well,
	And we were so arrogant, we couldn't tell,
	Until the day came she revealed all our plans
	To the rest of her people, who spoke with their hands

At last they confronted us, her as their voice.
We heard her and saw them and gave her a choice:
"Here you'll be feared, but there's people like you
In a country where everyone speaks as we do."

	"They speak as you do," she said, "what do you mean?
	A country where everyone gossips and schemes?"
	She said "I won't join you, I'd rather be burned,
	But I'll be here to hear if you ever return!"