Trick Out The Truth

It's a sin to tell a lie until we trick out the truth

That depends on what you do and don't believe

What you have hidden up your sleeve

Younger than your shadow and as sweet as your tooth

What have you forbidden from my view?

What have you kept from me?

What have I held from you?

What will they say when they haul you away?

Will anyone miss you, or kiss you, to say

"Goodbye" (Goodbye)

With a tear or a coin for your eye

When they finally trick out the truth

There are witches in the air

Jack o'lanterns on the stairs

And a wig to turn your hair electric blue

Ghouls are sighted, children frighted

Superheroes and villains

Wondrous women by the millions

Who fade to the parade

And join the masquerade

Right outside your door a werewolf and his claw

Painted faces with a penny chew and Kensington gore

Mussolini and his mistress in defeat

And a witness with a cutlass arrange a winding sheet

Singing "Leaning On A Lampost On The Corner Of The Street"

The Marxists cheer a working girl

Groucho, Chico, Harpo and Karl

She's tattooed from her head to toe

She's inky like a girl I know

A contagion of invidia

Just like the famous Lydia

Just like Helen, late of Troy

The Myna Bird, the Myrna Loy

Bud and Lou were wrestling in the parlour

Playing cards with Gustav Mahler

We were calling every hand and every hold

To a silent movie pianist

Accompanying the action

From our description and distraction

Playing vamps and trills and rambles, sound effects and rags and rumbles

Without even breaking stride

Just as the bloody vampire nips his bride

We were so scared that we knelt down to pray

With a bishop by Bacon

Who caused some dismay

Who summons up tormented souls doused with feathers and molasses

And the ashes of unholy crosses

Somebody has to die before we trick out the truth

I'll be coming back and I will turn the screw

Longer than the shadow of some pulp fiction sleuth

Standing in a costume of your choice

Lady Godiva on a horse

And Godzilla, of course

For should we part at the end of the day

When angels attend you to whisk you away

We are falling down deep

Like children into sleep

And the candy has been counted

And the bonfire will be haunted

By orphans who are heard but never seen

Each and every Halloween

What will they say when they haul you away?

Will anyone miss you, or kiss you, to say

"Goodbye" (Goodbye)

With a tear or a coin for your eye

When they finally trick out the truth

When they finally trick out the truth