I've seen your face in every place that I'll be goin'
I read your words like black hungry birds read every song


Rise and fall
Spin and call
And my name

Is carnival

Sad music in the night

Sings a scream of light out of chorus
And voices you might hear appear and disappear


In the forest
Short and tall throw the ball
And my name is carnival


Strings of yellow tears
Drip from black wire fears

In the meadow
And their white halos spin
With an anger that is thin

And turns to sorrow

King of all

Hear me call
Hear my name
Carnival


Here there is no law
But the arcade's penny claw

Hanging empty
The painted laughing smile
And the turning of the style

Do not envy

And the small

Can steal the ball
To touch the face
Of carnival


The fat woman frowns
At screaming frightened clowns

That move enchanted
And a shadow lie and waits
Outside your iron gates

With one wish granted

Colors fall

Throw the ball
Play the game
Of carnival


Without a thought of size
You come to hypnotize

The danger
The world that comes apart
Has no single heart

When life is stranger

Wheel and call

Clawed dreams all
In the name
Of carnival


Wheel and call
Clawed dreams all

In the name
Of carnival