The Carny

Nick Cave and the bad seeds

And no-one saw the Carny go, 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
 Away, away, we're sad to say

Dog-boy, Atlas, Mandrake, the geeks, the hired hands
 There was not one among them that did not cast an eye behind
 In the hope that the Carny would return to his own kind

The Carny left behind a horse so skin and bone that he named Sorrow
 And it was in a shallow, unmarked grave
 That that old nag was laid
 In the then parched meadow

And it was the dwarves that were given the task of digging the ditch
 And laying the nag's carcass in the ground
 While boss Bellini, waved his smoking pistol around
 saying "The nag was dead meat"
 "We can't afford to carry dead weight"
 While the whole company standing about, not making a sound
 And turning to the dwarves perched on the enclosure gate
 The boss says "Bury this lump of crow bait"

And the rain came hammering down
 Everybody running for their wagons
 Tying all the canvas flaps down
 The mangy cats growling in their cages
 The bird-girl flapping and squawking around
 The whole valley reeking of wet beast
 Wet beast and rotten, sodden hay
 Freak and brute creation all
 Packed up and on their way

The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hind
 Moses says to Noah "Shoulda dugga deepa one"
 Their grizzled faces like dying moons
 Still 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 spell
 wishing they'd done a better job of burying Sorrow

And the company passed from the valley
 Into a higher ground
 And the rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow
 And on the mound

Until nothing was left, nothing left 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 the rain it hammered down
 And the rain it hammered down
 And the rain it hammered down

And no-one saw the Carny go
 No-one saw the Carny go
 No-one saw the Carny go
 I say, it's funny how things go...