Mary Queen Of Arkansas

(album: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. - 1973)

Mary queen of Arkansas, it's not too early for dreaming
The sky is grown with cloud seed sown and a bastard's love can be redeeming
Mary, my queen, your soft hulk is reviving
No, you're not too late to desecrate, the servants are just rising

Well, I'm just a lonely acrobat, the live wire is my trade
I've been a shine boy for your acid brat and a wharf rat of your state
Mary, my queen, your blows for freedom are missing
You're not man enough for me to hate or woman enough for kissing

The big top is for dreamers, we can take the circus all the way to the border
And the gallows wait for martyrs whose papers are in order
But I was not born to live to die, and you were not born for queening
It's not to late to infiltrate, the servants are just leaving

Mary queen of Arkansas, your white skin is deceiving
You wake and wait to lie in bait and you almost got me believing
But on your bed, Mary, I can see the shadow of a noose
I don't understand how you can hold me so tight and love me so damn loose

But I know a place where we can go, Mary
Where I can get a good job and start out all over again clean
I got contacts deep in Mexico where the servants have been seen