Serpentine

Maybe it's just age or a thousand other fears

That took me back tonight to my early carnival years

I can see the parade a-movin'

Like the source of the old gulf stream

Oh what a lovely dream

Adolescent lust was begging for a start

As I side-stepped those Brothers with their sacred hearts

Yet for those two weeks a year it was all about sin

Folly's chasin' death you can count me in

There's a flambeaux man with a gold earring

And the cold north wind smells like kerosene

Here comes the float of the Carnival Queen

I want to wrap her in serpentine

Hands up high eyes open wide

"Throw me something mister"

That's why you ride

Cracker Jacks with toys inside

Real beyond our wildest dreams

Floats and masks and a two mule team

Some things really are

The way they seem

Beads and confetti were littering the air

When the Queen looked at me with her Ava Gardner stare

Though tomorrow would bring ashes and penance by the ton

Mardi Gras's where I learned to have fun

There's a flambeaux man with a gold earring

And the cold north wind smells like kerosene

I'm still in love with the Carnival Queen

I want to wrap her in serpentine

Still want to wrap her in serpentine

It was the devil