And no-one saw the Carny go And 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, Man-drake, 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'd 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 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 'round Saying ''The nag was dead meat'' ''We can't afford to carry dead weight'' The whole company standing about Not making a sound And turning to the dwarves on the enclosured 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 squawkening 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 through their wagon's hind Moses says to Noah ''We shoulda dugga deepa one'' Their grissom 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 at burrying Sorrow
And the company'd passed from the valley into higher ground 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 And no-one saw the Carny go And no-one saw the Carny go I say its funny how things go