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'Neath the leaden lid |
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I saw your face |
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Ashen and pale as you walked away |
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And I stayed behind |
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Oh Where'd you go |
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Dearest friend of mine |
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Can you recall the lurid scene of savagery |
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The sea beast belly-up and beached |
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Twice as long as a seven mast ship |
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They took him apart with pliers and a crane |
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Oh they took him apart, though it took several days |
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And they took him apart and the townspeople came |
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And chit-chattered away |
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The sky that night seemed lacerated |
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Each cloud a con- contusion |
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Some wade in the water to wash his bones off |
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I wade in the water and I watch 'em |
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Then they stack him up on a pushcart |
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Haul him off to the maritime museum |
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The horizon boasts a widowed light |
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That punches pinholes 'tween the sycamores and pines |
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And through the sodden bogs I make my way back home |
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The biddies of the town can chew this tale down |
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And gnaw it into skeletal scraps 'til fiction is fact |
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See the truckling trees, bare in the air |
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But for struggling kites |
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Oh! His bones are bleached, laid out on the truck |
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His teeth are brushed and his mouth is shut |
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His bones are tied with twine and screws |
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Put on poles, hoisted up in a room |
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I recall looking once 'neath your lids |
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To a universe full of starts |
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And the days drag on awfully long |
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When you're not one who can carry on |
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Chit-chattering away |
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Chit-chattering away... |