The Carny

Nick CaveNick Cave 

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Nick Cave

Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional film actor. more »

Year:

1986

8:02

5 Views

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#1

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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" they said 

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, all skin and bone
That he named "Sorrow"
And it was a shallow, unmarked grave
That that old nag was laid
In the then parched meadow 

And it was the dwarves 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 the wagon's hind
Moses says to Noah "We shoulda dug a deepa one"
Their grizzled faces like dying moons
Still dirty from the digging done 

And Charlie the eldest of 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 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

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