Down the road I look and there runs Mary

Hair of gold and lips like cherries

We go down to the river where the willows weep

Take a naked root for a lovers seat

That rose out of the bitten soil

But sound to the ground by creeping ivy coils

O Mary you have seduced my soul

And I don't know right from wrong

Forever a hostage of your child's world

And then I ran my tin-cup heart along

The prison of her ribs

And with a toss of her curls

That little girl goes wading in

Rollin her dress up past her knee

Turning these waters into wine

Then she platted all the willow vines

Mary in the shallows laughing

Over where the carp dart

Spooked by the new shadows that she cast

Across these sad waters and across my heart

And no-one saw the carny go

And the weeks flew by

Until they moved on the show

Leaving his caravan behind

It was parked out on the south east ridge

And as the company crossed the bridge

With the first rain filling the bone-dry river bed

It shone, just so, upon the edge

Dog-boy, atlas, half-man, the geeks, the hired hands

There was not one among them that did not cas an eye behind

In the hope that the carny would return to his own kind

And the carny had a horse, all skin and bone

A bow-backed nag, that he named "Sorrow"

How it is buried in a shallow grave

In the then parched meadow

And the dwarves were given the task of digging the ditch

And laying the nag's carcass in the ground

And boss Bellini, waving his smoking pistol around

saying "The nag is dead meat"

"We caint afford to carry dead weight"

The whole company standing about

Not making a sound

And turning to dwarves perched on the enclosure gate

The boss says "Bury this lump of crow bait"

And thean the rain came

Everybody running for their wagons

Tying all the canvas flaps down

The mangy cats crowling in ther cages

The bird-girl flapping and squawking around

The whole valley reeking of wet beast

Wet beast and rotten hay

Freak and brute creation

Packed up and on their way

The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hind

Moses says to Noah "We shoulda dugga deepa one"

Their grizzled faces like dying moons

Still dirty from the digging done

And as the company passed from the valley

Into a higher ground

The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow

And on the mound

Until nothing was left, nothing at all

Except the body of Sorrow

That rose in time

To float upon the surface of the eaten soil

And a murder of crows did circle round

First one, then the others flapping blackly down

And the carny's van still sat upon the edge

Tilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge

And the rain it hammered down

And no-one saw the carny go

I say it's funny how things go

And I've walked a crooked mile

Night, the shameless widow

Doffed her weeds, in a pile

The stars all winked at me

They shamed a child

Your funeral, my trial

A thousand Marys lured me

To feathered beds and fields of glover

Bird with crooked wing cast

It's wicked shadow over

A bauble moon did mock

And trinket stars did smile

Your funeral, my trial

Here I am, little lamb...

Let all the bells in whoredom ring

All the crooked bitches that she was

(Mongers of pain)

Saw the moon

Become a fang

Your funeral, my trial

Bottled light from hotels

Spilling everything

Wet hand from the volcano

Sobers your skin

Stranger than Kindness

You caress yourself

And grind my soft cold bones below

Your map of desire

Burned in your flesh

Even a fool can come

A strange lit stair

And find a rope hanging there

Stranger than kindness

Keys rain like heaven's hair

There is no home there is no bread

We sit at the gate and scratch

The gaunt fruit of passion

Dies in the light

Stranger than kindness

Your sleeping hands journey

The loiter

Stranger than kindness

You hold me so carelessy close

Tell me I'm dirty

Stranger than kindness

From the hole

And the bulb that burned above him

Did shine both day and night

And his shadow learned to love his

Little darks and greater light

And the sun it shined

And the sun it shined

And the sun it shined

A little longer

Jack wept and kissed his shadow

"Goodbye"

Spat from their dirty dungeons

Into a truly different din

Shat from their institutions

Into a fully different din

And his shadow soon became a wife

And children plagued his latter life

Until one night he took a skinning knife

And stole into the town

And tracked his shadow down

Said the shadow to Jack Henry

"What's wrong?"

Jack said "A home is not a hole"

"And shwdow, you're just a gallow that I hang my body from"

"O Shadow, your a shackle from wich my time is never done"

Then he peeled his shadow off in strips

He peeled his shadow off in strips

Then kneeled his shadow on some steps

And cried "What have I done?"

And the sun it shined

And the sun it shined

I say "Love is blind"

"And is it any wonder?!"

"And is it any wonder?!"

Jacked and his damned shadow

Is gone

And though each one of us are want to duly mourn

And though each one of us are want to duly mourn

'Tis done in brighter corners now

'Tis done in brighter corners now

Now that Jack's black shadow's gone

And the sun it shined

And the sun it shined

And the sun it shined

A little stronger

I swear, love is blind

Ooh, love is blind

Yeah, love is blind

And is it any wonder?

'Tis done in brighter corners now

'Tis done in brighter corners now

Now that Jack's black shadow's gone

Etcetera Etcetera

That the moon is steeped in mild nad blood

That I steal like a robber

From her altar of love

O money lender! O clover gender!

I am the fiend hid in her skirts

And it's as hot as hell in here

Coming at her as I am from above

Hard on for love hard on for love

Hard on for love hard on for love

Well, I swear I seen that girl before

Like she walked straight outa the book of Leveticus

But they can stone me with stones I don't care

Just as long as I can get to kiss

Those gypsy lips! Gypsy lips!

My aim is to hit this Miss

And I'm moving in (I'm moving in)

Coming at her like Lazarus from above

Hard on for love hard on for love

Hard on for love hard on for love

The Lord is my shepard I shall not want

The Lord is my shepard I shall not want

But he ledeth me like a lamb to the lips

Of the mouth of the valley of the whadow of death

I am his rod and his staff

I am his sceptre and shaft

And she is heaven and hell

At whose gates I ain't been delivered

I'm gunna give the gates a shove

Hard on for love hard on for love

Hard on for love hard on for love

And her breasts rise and fall

Breast rise and fall

Breast rise and fall

Breast rise and fall

And just when I'm about to get my hands on her

Just when I'm about to get my hands on her

Just when I'm about to get my hands on her

Just when I'm about to get my hands on her

You are beautiful! O dove!

Hard on for love hard on for love

Hard on for love hard on for love

Just when I'm about to get my hands on her

Just when I'm about to get my hands on her

Her breasts rise and fall

Her breasts rise and fall

Just when I'm about to get my hands on her

Just when I'm about to get my hands on her

Hard on for love hard on for love

Hard on for love hard on for love

Carbed apart the madness that I stumbled from

But she fell away

She fell away

Shed me like a skin

She fell away

Left me holding everything

Once the road lay open like a girl

And we drank and laughed and threw the bottle over

But she fell away

She fell away

I did not see the cracks form

As I knelt to pray

I did not see the crevice yawn, no

Sometimes

At night I feel the end it is at hand

My pistol going crazy in my hand

For she fell away

O she fell away

Walked me th the brink

The fell away

I did not see her fall

To better days

Sometimes I wonder was she ever there at all

She fell away

She fell away

She fell away

Said I'd be sitting here for the rest of my life

But I don't really care - I shot my wife

And brother, I can't even remember the reason why

Oh, it makes a long time man feel bad

Yeah, it makes a long time man feel bad

Well I ain't had no love since I don't know when

It sure makes a long time man feel bad

We was down in Jacksonville

A cold winter night

My baby and I, we began to fight

I heated up, and I grabbed my gun

I get so cold on those nights down south

She was laying in a pool right there on the kitchen floor

She looked up at me and began to smile

Her gasping words: "Baby, I love you"

Then she closed those baby blue eyes

(chorus, and variations)

Sometimes I hear you call my name in the dead of the night

I ain't had those arms around me

I ain't had those lips, those lips, around me

It sure makes a long time man feel bad

So bad

Well, I lived with one, I lived with two,

I even lived with a third

I wanna tell you about number one

He was a miserable shitwringing turd

Like he reminded me of some evil gnome

Shakin hands was like shakin a hot, fat, oily bone

Holdin on for far too long

Yes he took me in, he took me in

He said that I looked pale and thin

I told him he looked fat

His lips were red and lickin wet

His house was roastin hot

In fact it was a fuckin slum

Scum! Scum!

Well then he hooked up with some slut from the same game

Black snow! Black snow!

Cocksuckstress, and I should know

Mean and vicious, her microphone always smelled suspicious

His and herpes bath towel type

If you know what I mean

I could not look at him, worm

He'd be takin a shower and who should walk in

He was the epitome of their type

Her middle name was Welcome, his was Wipe

Scum! Scum!

Well you're on the shit list

Thrust and twist, twist and screw

You gave me a bad review

And maybe you think that it's all just water under the bridge

Well my UNfriend, I'm the type that holds a grudge

I'm your creator

I think you fuckin traitor, chronic masturbator,

Shitlicker, user, self-abuser, jigger jigger!

What rock did you crawl from?

Which ..... did you come?

You Judas, Brutus, Vitus, Scum!

Hey four-eyes, come

That's right, it's a gun

Face is bubble, blood, and ...... street

Snowman with six holes clean into his fat fuckin guts

Psychotic drama mounts

Guts well deep then a spring is fount (?)

I unload into his eyes

Blood springs

Dead snow

Blue skies