The Flying Wallendas

(album: The Big To-Do - 2010)

And they fell from the skies with the greatest of ease
And they landed on the ground under tents and trapeze
And they were told that they fell with such beauty and grace
That The Flying Wallendas would be the name on their case

And the fine folks of Akron would forever be saying
That they flew through the air like the wings of a prayer
But they all walked away amidst the gawking and stares
And the children revisited their fall in nightmares
But they never would stop and they never surrendered
And they lived like they died, The Flying Wallendas

They could dance on the wire through the fire and the storm
John Ringling had seen Karl in Cuba perform
He raised up his kids for performance and stardom
They performed center ring at Madison Square Garden
With a seven man pyramid folks lined up just to see 'em
Till they fell from the sky at Detroit's State Fair Coliseum

And they fell to the ground with the greatest of ease
Three didn't get up from the blood in the breeze
But Karl wouldn't be stopped from his home in the skies
Till he fell from the wire in San Juan and he died

In Sarasota as a child my grandparents lived next door
To the surviving Wallendas and their amazing wild stories
I was stun and astounded that the old lady who was out
Pruning her orange trees had flown to the heavens and back