Noel's Lament

In my life, I was Noel Gruber

Who worked at Taco Bell in Uranium City, Saskatchewan

But in my dreams I played a different role

I was Monique Gibeau in post-war France

A hooker with a heart of black charcoal

I write poems to burn by firelight

Drink champagne and guzzle gin

Good girls call me "the town bicycle"

Don't knock it 'til you've tried my life of sin

Oh, Claude, my pimp, knows, never mess with me

Last prick did that, faded quick to black

I have no idea where to find him, officers

But if you do, please mention that

I'd like to have returned the pretty knife

That I stuck ten times in his back

For I sing songs until the break of dawn

I embrace a new man every night

My life's one never-ending carnival

A world of boozy-floozy flashing light

I want to be that fucked up girl

He said, "I think I am in love with you"

I've heard that lie a million times before

Oh, tonight I give in to the fantasy

Take love when you can, when you're a whore

For I sing songs until the break of dawn

I embrace a new man every night

My life's one never-ending carnival

A world of boozy-floozy flashing light

I want to be that fucked up girl

So now I sell my love for opium

In some rat-infested Chinese dive

At night I burn myself with cigarettes

Just to somehow prove I'm still alive

Eight months later I catch typhoid flu

Kicked out, I see the ugly light of day

Dying in an alley, a priest kneels down to me

"My child, do you have any final words to the Lord you'd like to say?"

"Oui, tell him that, like him, I choose to burn out rather than fade away"

For I sing songs until the break of dawn

I embrace a new man every night

My life's one never-ending carnival

A world of boozy-floozy flashing light

For I sing songs until the break of dawn

I embrace a new man every night

My life's one never ending carnival