She was called

a scarlet woman

by the people

Who would go to church

but leave me in the street

With no parents

of my own

I never had a home

And a fifteen year old girl

has got to eat

She found me outside

one Sunday morning

begging money

from a man I didn't know

She took me in

and wiped away

my childhood

that woman of the street

this lady Rose

This bed of roses

that I lay on where I was

taught to love a man

This bed of roses

where I'm livin'

is the only kind

of life I'll understand

She was a handsome woman

just thirty-five

who was spoken

to in town by very few

She managed

a late evening business

like most of the town

wished they could do

I learned all the things

That a girl should know

from a woman

not approved of I suppose

She died knowing

someone really loved her

from life's bramble bush

I picked a rose

This bed of roses

that I lay on where I was

taught to love a man

This bed of roses

where I'm livin'

is the only kind

of life I'll understand

This bed of roses

that I lay on where I was

taught to love a man

This bed of roses

where I'm livin'

is the only kind

of life I'll understand......