No One's Watching

The curtain is raised, and the elephant walks in,
with the hat lady who slaps his leg, and tickles his trunk,
while he performs tricks for the audience, who's drunk
She smiles and bows, tonight she's proud,
she'll drink and forget about retiring and dancing
with wild horses in a barn in town, in a field
full of daisies, when the sun goes down,
she won't sleep again as usual, tonight she'll frown

The clown wants you to laugh, he looks at the kids
throwing orange peels on his nose, he loves them still,
his job he adores, he's a lover of beauty, but believes in perfection,
day after day, he toils and does his jigs in succession
As he wipes off the paint, his face falls down,
and he doesn't know who he is anymore,
maybe he's still just a clown

The tarot lady sits at the stall, and asks you to believe
in yourself, 'see, that way you'll never fall'
Her lover has a mistress, she knows, but she won't recall,
'Your card is the king of wands,' she says,
but what it means she can't explain, she wants to run away,
she wants to dissolve; the carnival is leaving town,
but she must follow them, her own future she can't predict,
so for the fate of others she must call

The salad seller has made a sale, but no one's willing to try
his mousse cake, maybe it's better to give up than fail
He eyes the fruit lady, but her apples are too stale,
so he sticks to cutting cabbages that will make for
rat food, and when the people have all left, he sits
with his leftovers and admires the beautiful designs
on his plate, maybe it's still not too late, to leave this
job and travel to Spain, where the buffalo meat is fresh,
the afternoons are long, and there is experience to gain

The banjo man plays hard, he loves himself deeply,
he's the king of his guard, he wants to leave this mess,
walk straight into the sea, but the banjo is old
and so are his deeds; so he plays for the disgruntled crowd,
who long for something mod, he loathes their mediocrity,
he hates being needed, he believes in no one's God.

The acrobat is pretty, but her dress was torn tonight,
so she tried to wear some pants, but she was booed out of sight,
she yearns respect and demands it, but no one loves her you see,
her stunts are old and jaded, her sequins are too tacky
She wishes she were smarter and braver, she wishes she was sexy,
but she's still a small town girl in pants, she'll never be a tease

The monkeys dance, the horses clap and the magician waves his wand,
The show's a disaster and the people don't give a damn
All the actors are fake, and the watchers are all dead
No one cares for the circus anymore, they all want video games instead