We put up our tent on a dark green knoll

Outside of town by the train tracks and a seagull dump

Topping the bill was Horse Face Ethel and her Marvelous Pigs in Satin

We pounded our stakes in the ground, all powder brown

The branches spread like scary fingers reaching

We were in a pasture outside Kankakee

And one-eyed Myra, the queen of the galley

Who trained the ostrich and the camels

She looked at me squinty with her one good eye

In a Roy Orbison t-shirt as she bottle fed an Orangutan named

Tripod

And then there was Yodeling Elaine, the Queen of the Air

Who wore a dollar-sign medallion

And she had a tiny bubble of spittle around her nostril

And a little rusty tear

For she had lassoed and lost another tipsy sailor

And over in the burnt yellow tent by the frozen tractor

The music was like electric sugar

And Zuzu Bolin played "Stavin' Chain"

And Mighty Tiny on the saw

And he threw his head back with a mouth full of gold teeth

And they played "Lopsided Heart" and "Moon Over Dog Street"

And by the time they played "Moanin' Low"

I was soakin' wet and wild-eyed

And Doctor Bliss slipped me a preparation

And I fell asleep with "Livery Stable Blues" in my ear

And me and Molly Hoey drank Pruno and Kool-Aid

She had a tattoo gun made out of a cassette motor and a guitar string

She soaked a hanky in Three Roses and rubbed it on the spot

And drew a rickety heart and a bent arrow and it hurt like hell

And Funeral Wells spun Poodle Murphy on the target

As he threw his hardware

Only once in Sheboygan did he miss at a matinee on Diamond Pier

And she'd never let him forget it

They were doing two shows

She had a high fever and he took off a piece of her ear

And Tip Little told her she should leave the bum

But Poodle said, "He fetched me last time I run

And I'd like to hammer this ring into a bullet

And I wish I had some whiskey and a gun, my dear

I wish I had some whiskey and a gun, my dear."