| The pastor stood at odds with every
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| sermon read, and once he learned
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| to speak in knots, he never had
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| to wear his share of scarlet- what a shame
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| they caught a word he said
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| You shouldn’t live to second-guess
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| but certain thoughts, they think they ought
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| to roam the sheets before you dress
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| and drag you down the stairway, raring
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| open-mouthed to down the morning spread
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| I’ll pile their plates as high as towers
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| if they’ll just go back to bed
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| I took you for a sailing boat,
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| a steady-calm, parading float
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| I sent with shuddered waves until I saw
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| what I was made of-- shabby coat
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| to throw upon a lake of mud and thinning ice
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| a hollow tone
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| an echo dry that wouldn’t fall
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| from any body but a stone
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| Now I’m giving only what I’ve found
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| I hear you’re living deep inside the ground
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| A walking sore to clean and dress,
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| a mess to sweep below the feet
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| He’s sure to take a pound of flesh
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| if he would only show some teeth
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| and meet you where you came to grow
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| a lemon tree
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| and hoped to live it down
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| A rope’s an awful thing to give |
| to someone happy on the ground
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| Now I’m giving only what I’ve found
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| I hear you’re living deep inside the ground |