The Carny
And no-one saw the Carny go, the weeks flew byUntil they moved on the show, leaving his caravan behindIt was parked out on the south east ridgeAnd as the company crossed the bridgeWith the first rain filling the bone-dry river bedIt shone, just so, upon the edgeAway, away, we're sad to say
Dog-boy, Atlas, Mandrake, the geeks, the hired handsThere was not one among them that did not cast an eye behindIn the hope that the Carny would return to his own kind
The Carny left behind a horse so skin and bone that he named SorrowAnd it was in a shallow, unmarked graveThat that old nag was laidIn the then parched meadow
And it was the dwarves that were given the task of digging the ditchAnd laying the nag's carcass in the groundWhile boss Bellini, waved his smoking pistol aroundsaying "The nag was dead meat""We can't afford to carry dead weight"While the whole company standing about, not making a soundAnd turning to the dwarves perched on the enclosure gateThe boss says "Bury this lump of crow bait"
And the rain came hammering downEverybody running for their wagonsTying all the canvas flaps downThe mangy cats growling in their cagesThe bird-girl flapping and squawking aroundThe whole valley reeking of wet beastWet beast and rotten, sodden hayFreak and brute creation allPacked up and on their way
The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hindMoses says to Noah "Shoulda dugga deepa one"Their grizzled faces like dying moonsStill dirty from the digging done
And Charlie the Atlas to the three said"I guess the Carny ain't gonna show"And they were silent for a spellwishing they'd done a better job of burying Sorrow
And the company passed from the valleyInto a higher groundAnd the rain beat on the ridge and on the meadowAnd on the mound
Until nothing was left, nothing left at allExcept the body of SorrowThat rose in timeTo float upon the surface of the eaten soil
And a murder of crows did circle 'roundFirst one, then the others flapping blackly down
And the Carny's van still sat upon the edgeTilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge
And the rain it hammered downAnd the rain it hammered downAnd the rain it hammered downAnd the rain it hammered down
And no-one saw the Carny goNo-one saw the Carny goNo-one saw the Carny goI say, it's funny how things go...