Song of Joy

Have mercy on me sir allow me to impose on you
I have no place to stay and my bones are cold right through
I will tell you a story of a man and his family and i swear that it is true
Ten years ago I met a girl named Joy she was a sweet and happy thing
Her eyes were bright blue jewels and we were married in the spring
I had no idea what happiness and little love could bring
or what life had in store
But all things moved toward their end
all things moved toward their end
on that u can be sure

Then one morning i woke to find her weeping and for many days to follow
she grew so sad and lonely became Joy in name only
Within her breast there launched an unnamed sorrow
and a dark and a grim force set sail
Farewell happy fields where joy forever dwells
Hail horrors hail

Was it an act of contrition or some awful premonition
As if she saw into the heart of her final blood-soaked night
Those lunatic eyes, that hungry kitchen knife
I see sir I have your attention
Well, could it be?
How often I've asked that question
Well, then in quick succession we had babies, one, two, three
we called them Hilda, Hattie and Holly
they were their mother's children
Their eyes were bright blue jewels and they were quiet as a mouse
there was no laughter in the house no not for Hilda, Hattie or Holly
'No wonder' people said 'poor mother Joy's so melancholy'
Well one night there came a visitor to our little home
I was visiting a sick friend, I was a doctor then
Joy and the girls were on their own
Joy had been bound with electrical tape in her mouth a gag
she'd been stabbed repeatedly and stuffed into a sleeping bag
in their very cots my girls were robbed of their lives
Method of murder much the same as my wife's
It was midnight when I arrived home said to the police on the telephone
someone has taken four innocent lives...

They never caught the man, he is still on the loose
it seems he's done many, many more
Quotes John Milton on the walls in the victims' blood
the police are investigating at tremendous cost
In my house he wrote 'his red right hand'
that i am told, is from Paradise Lost
The wind down here gets wicked cold but my story is nearly told
I fear the morning will bring quite a frost
and so i ve left my home, i drift from land to land
I am upon your step and you are a family man
outside the vultures wheel, the wolves howl, the serpents hiss
and to extend this small favour, friend
would be the sum of earthly bliss
Do you reckon me a friend?
The sun to me is dark and silent as the moon
Do you sir, have a room? Are you beckoning me in?