Circus

We put up our tent on a dark green knoll outside of town
By the train tracks and a seagull dump
Topping the bill was Horse-Faced-Ethel
And her "Marvellous Pigs In Satin"
We pounded our stakes in the ground, all powder brown
And the branches spread like scary fingers reaching
We were in a pasture in Kankakee
And One-Eyed-Myra, the queen of the galley
Who trained the ostrich and the camels
She looked at me squinty
With her one good eye in a Roy Orbison t-shirt
As shе bottle-fed an orangutan named Tripod

And thеn there was Yodeling-Elaine
The queen of the air who wore a dollar sign medallion
She had a tiny bubble of spittle around her nostril
A little rusty tear
For she had lassoed and lost another tipsy sailor
And over in the burnt yellow tent by the frozen tractor
The music was like electric sugar
And Zuzu Bolin played "Stavin' Chain"
And Mighty Tiny on the saw
And he threw his head back with a mouth full of gold teeth
And they played "Lopsided Heart"
And "Moon over Dog Street"
And by the time they played "Moanin' Low"
I was soaking wet and wild-eyed

And Doctor Bliss slipped me a preparation and I fell asleep with
"Livery Stable Blues" in my ear
And me and Molley Hoey drank Pruno and Kool-Aid
She had a tattoo gun made out of a cassette motor and a guitar string
She soaked a hanky in three Roses and rubbed it on the spot
She drew a rickety heart and a bent arrow and it hurt like hell

And Funeral Wells spun Poodle Murphy on the target
As he threw his hardware
Only once in Sheboygan did he miss
At a matinee on Diamond Pier, she'd never let him forget it
They were doing two shows and she had a high fever
He took off a piece of her ear
Tip Little told her she should leave the bum
But Poodle said, "He fetched me last time I run"
I'd like to hammer this ring into a bullet, huh
I wish I had some whiskey and a gun, my dear
I wish I had some whiskey and a gun, my dear
Well, it's like E.E. Cummings said
"Damn everything but the circus"