Circus
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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 marvelous 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'd look at me squinty with her one good eye
In a Roy Orbison t-shirt
She bottle-fed an orangutan named Tripod
Then there was Yodeling Elaine, 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
Zuzu Bolin played "Stave and Chain" mighty tiny on the saw
And he threw his head back with a mouthful of gold teeth
And they played "Lopsided Heart" and "Moon Over Dog Street"
By the time they played "Moanin' Low"
I was soaking wet and wild-eyed
Doctor Bliss slipped me a preparation
And I fell asleep with "Livery Stable Blues" in my ear
And me and Molly 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 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"