Penny Dreadfuls

(album: Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished - 2000)

Time'll change,
Slip through the dust,
As the bus pulls away from waving hands
and the child star.
“I bought a comic in the mail
and the sign said
the stories will shake the sheep
from off of you”
So gather 'round,
just four more stops again,
we'll reach our teachers
hallways in the end.

Expect the foulest 'cause
doubt does not allow it,
I see the driver in the glass,
this car moving past,
While they're standing,
"There's no standing!"

The five-year olds eat defeat,
soiled in the seats when, "Attention!"
and short attention spans.
The boy who sweats when he's caught
is touching a palm of a pretty sex
who's cawing, "Where's my baby doll!"
Manny the thief, just lost all his teeth
to his mama, playing baseball.

Ahh oooh...

Pick a place and settle,
too fast to fright, he pauses
at who fought the likes of
his older pal.
And when they find out who he is,
Her eyes were sorry for
her brother who waited away "go time"
her dead costume just flipped her for the fall[?]
And watch the pain go through her
The entire body twisted
Soldiers in the coldness.

The bully grabs at my hair,
And punches they fell toward me,
tells me, "gonna get me now"
The driver pushes the gas,
the bully's schemes caught fast
so he spins back,
got his attention now.
He hits the brakes and we slide
and his head hits the side
And he screams out,
“Creeps, I'll take you all!”
And then he grabs penny dreadful, and looks on the check fulls,
And my head sinks, my friends have left my shore

Then there's the stop where Sarah climbs in, she says,
“Darling, where's your heart been?”
He laughs in his place.
She spits in his face and says, “Bully, you leave my boy alone!
Everybody came down just to see me leaving.
Baby take my hand now can't you see I'm happy?
When the story's mine I think I'll tell it different.
It's a shame to hear the sound
when the penny hit the ground
and I want to go back home.
When does this bus leave?”