Picaresque
Album - 21 marzo 2005 - Debaser id 182241

Here she comes in her palanquin
On the back of an elephant
On a bed made of linen and sequins and silk
All astride on her father's line
With the king and his concubines
And her nurse, with her pitchers of liquors and milk
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

Among five score pachyderm
Each canopied and passengered
Sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls
Within sight of the baroness
Seething spite for this lithe largesse
By her side sits the baron
Her barrenness barbs her
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

A phalanx on camel back
Thirty ranks on a forward tack
Followed close, their shiny bright standards a-waving
While behind, in their coach-and-fours
Ride the wives of the king of Moors
And the veiled young virgin, the prince's betrothed
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

And as she sits upon her place
Her innocence laid on her face
From all atop the parapets blow a multitude of coronets
Melodies rhapsodical and fair
And all our hearts afire
The sky ablaze with cannon fire
We all raise our voices to the air
To the air...

And above all this folderol
On a bed made of chaparral
She is laid, a coronal placed on her brow
And the babe, all in slumber dreams
Of a place, filled with quiet streams
And the lake, where her cradle was pulled from the water
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta
And we'll all come praise the infanta

Here on these cliffs of Dover
So high you can't see over
And while your head is spinning
Hold tight, it's just beginning

You come from parents wanton
A childhood rough and rotten
I come from wealth and beauty
Untouched by work or duty

And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together

I found you, a tattooed tramp
A dirty daughter from the labor camps
I laid you down on the grass of a clearing
You wept but your soul was willing

And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together

And my parents will never consent to this love
But I hold your hand

Meet me on my vast veranda
My sweet untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying

And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, oh my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together

Eli, the barrow boy
Of the old town
Sells coal and marigolds
And he cries out
All down the day

Below the tamaracks
He is crying:
“Corn cobs and candle wax for the buying!"
All down the day

“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread?
But she is dead and gone and lying in a pine grove
And I must push my barrow all the day
And I must push my barrow all the day"

Eli, the barrow boy
When they found him
Dressed all in corduroy
He had drowned in
The river down the way

They laid his body down in a church yard
But still when the moon is out
With his push cart
He calls down the day

“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine gown
Made of gold and silk Arabian thread?
But I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground
And still I push my barrow all the day
Still I push my barrow all the day"

I fell on the playing field
The work of an errant heel
The din of the crowd and the loud commotion
Went deafening silence and stopped emotion
The season was almost done
We managed it 12 to 1
So far I had known no humiliation
In front of my friends and close relations

There's my father looking on
And there's my girlfriend arm in arm
With the captain of the other team
And all of this is clear to me
They condescend and fix on me a frown
How they love the sporting life

And father had had such hopes
For a son who would take the ropes
And fulfill all his old athletic aspirations
But apparently now there's some complications
But while I am lying here
Trying to fight the tears
I'll prove to the crowd that I come out stronger
Though I think I might lie here a little longer

There's my coach he's looking down
The disappointment in his knitted brow
I should've known
He thinks again
I never should have put him in
He turns and loads the lemonade away
And breathes in deep
The sporting life
The sporting life
The sporting life
How he loves...

There's my father looking on
And there's my girlfriend arm in arm
With the captain of the other team
And all of this is clear to me
They condescend and fix on me a frown
How they love
Oh, the sporting life
The sporting life
The sporting life
How they love

On the lam from the law
On the steps of the capitol
You shot a plainclothes cop on the ten o'clock
And I saw momentarily
They flashed a photograph, it couldn't be you
You'd been abused so horribly
But you were there in some anonymous room

And I recall that fall
I was working for the government
And in a bathroom stall off the National Mall
How we kissed so sweetly
How could I refuse a favor or two
For a tryst in the greenery
I gave you documents and microfilm, too

And from my ten floor tenement
Where once our bodies lay
How I long to hear you say
No, they'll never catch me now
No, they'll never catch me
No, they cannot catch me now
We will escape somehow, somehow

It was late one night
I was awoken by the telephone
I heard a strangled cry on the end of the line
Purloined in Petrograd
They were suspicious of where your loyalties lay
So I paid off a bureaucrat
To convince your captors there to secret you away

And at the gate of the embassy
Our hands met through the bars
As your whisper stilled my heart
No, they'll never catch me now
No, they'll never catch me
No, they cannot catch me now
We will escape somehow, somehow

And I dreamt one night
You were there in form
Head held high
In uniform

It was ten years on
When you resurfaced in a motorcar
With the wave of an arm
You were there and gone

Gentle leaves, gentle leaves
Please array a path for me
The woods are blowing thick and fast around
Columbine, Columbine
Please alert this love of mine
Let him know his Margaret comes along
And all this stirring inside my belly
Won't quell my want for love
And I may swoon from all this swaying
But I won't want for love
Mistlethrush, Mistlethrush
Lay me down in the underbrush
My naked feet grow weary with the dusk
Willow Boughs, Willow Boughs,
Make a bed to lay me down
Let your branches bow to cradle us
And all this stirring inside my belly
Won't quell my want for love
And I may swoon from all this swaying
But I won't want for love
Oh, my own true love
Oh, my own true love
Can you hear me, love?
Can you hear me, love?
And all this stirring inside my belly
Won't quell my want for love
And I may swoon from all this swaying
But I won't want for love
Won't want for love
Won't want for love
Won't want for love

Sixteen military wives
Thirty-two softly focused, brightly colored eyes
Staring at the natural tan
Of thirty-two gently clenching wrinkled little hands

Seventeen company men
Out of which only twelve will make it back again
Sergeant sends a letter to five
Military wives whose tears drip down from ten little eyes

Cheer them on to their rivals
'Cause America can, and America can't say no
And America does, if America says it's so, it's so!
And the anchor person on TV, goes:
La de da de da

Fifteen celebrity minds
Leading their Fifteen sordid, wretched, checkered lives
Will they find the solution in time
Using their Fifteen pristine, moderate, liberal minds

Eighteen academy chairs
Out of which only seven really even care
Doling out the garland to five
Celebrity minds, they're humbly taken by surprise

Cheer them on to their rivals
'Cause America can, and America can't say no
And America does, if America says it's so, it's so!
And the anchor person on TV, goes:
La de da de da, de di de da de da
La de da de da, de di de da de da

Fourteen cannibal kings
Wondering blithely what the dinner bell will bring
Fifteen celebrity minds
Served on a leafy bed of sixteen military wives

Cheer them on to their rivals
Cause America can, and America can't say no
And America does, if America says it's so, it's so!
And the anchor person on TV, goes:
La de da de da, de di de da de da
La de da de da, de di de da de da
La de da de da, de di de da de da
La de da de da, de di de da de da
La de da de da, de di de da de da

I'm an engine driver
On a long run, on a long run
Would I work beside her
She's a long one, such a long one

And if you don't love me, let me go
And if you don't love me, let me go

I'm a county lineman
On the high line, on the high line
So will be my grandson
There are power lines in our bloodlines

And if you don't love me, let me go
And if you don't love me, let me go

And I am writer
A writer of fictions
I am the heart that you call home
I've written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones
My bones, my bones

I'm a moneylender
I have fortunes upon fortunes
Take my hand for tender
I am tortured, ever tortured

And if you don't love me, let me go
And if you don't love me, let me go

And I am a writer
Writer of fictions
I am the heart that you call home
I've written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones

I am a writer
I am all that you have known
And I've written pages upon pages
Trying to rid you from my bones
My bones, my bones

(And if you don't love me, let me go)
And if you don't love me, let me go
(And if you don't love me, let me go)
And if you don't love me, let me go

In matching blue raincoats,
our shoes were our show boats
we kicked around.
From stairway to station
we made a sensation
with the gadabout crowd.
And oh, what a bargain,
we’re two easy targets
for the old men at the off-tracks,
who’ve paid in palaver
and crumpled old dollars,
which we squirreled away
in our rat trap hotel by the freeway.
And we slept-in Sundays.

Your parents were anxious,
your cool was contagious
at the old school.
You left without leaving
a note for your grieving
sweet mother, while
your brother was so cruel.
And here in the alleys
your spirits were rallied
as you learned quick to make a fast buck.
In bathrooms and barrooms,
on dumpsters and heirlooms,
we bit our tongues.
Sucked our lips into our lungs
'til we were falling.
Such was our calling.

And here in our hollow we fuse like a family,
but I will not mourn for you.
So take up your makeup
and pocket your pills away.
We’re kings among runaways
on the bus mall.
We’re down
on the bus mall.

Among all the urchins and old Chinese merchants
of the old town,
we reigned at the pool hall
with one iron cue ball
and we never let the bastards get us down.
And we laughed off the quick tricks--
the old men with limp dicks--
on the colonnades of the waterfront park.
As 4 in the morning came on, cold and boring,
we huddled close
in the bus stop enclosure enfolding.
Our hands tightly holding.

But here in our hollow we fuse like a family,
but I will not mourn for you.
So take up your makeup
and pocket your pills away.
We’re kings among runaways
on the bus mall.
We’re down
on the bus mall.
We’re down
on the bus mall.
Down on the bus mall.
oh ooh oh

There are angels in your angles
There's a low moon caught in your tangles
There's a ticking at the sill
There's a purr of a pigeon to break the still of day

As on we go drowning
Down we go away
And darling, we go a-drowning
Down we go away
Away

There's a tough word on your crossword
There's a bed bug nipping a finger
There's a swallow, there's a calm
Here's a hand to lay on your open palm today

As on we go drowning
Down we go away
And darling, we go a-drowning
Down we go away
Away

There are angels in your angles
There's a low moon caught in your tangles