Lyrics:

Her communiqué arrived with its expression of her feelings
I declare I'd no idea she'd been holding and concealing
Such a storm of words unsaid that, absurd as it appears
Had been blowing in her head for twenty-seven years

I knew I had to face her, so I grabbed my Davy Crockett
Threw a scarf around my neck and twenty dollars in my pocket
I found her in the same old place, a pamphlet in her fist
When she saw my wind-blown face she said 'well, look at who it is!'

Meet me on the mad parade when the midnight bells are chiming
We'll dress up as the harlequin and the clown
Pile all the blunders that we've made in a tower too tall for climbing
And we'll burn, the damn thing down

In the grey November light she was older, still alluring
Her hair was grey and longer than it ever had been during
The days we loved and slept in her bed of painted wood
In the little place she kept in a crumbling neighbourhood

We walked along awhile like we were old and close companions
But I could feel the gulf between us yawning like a canyon
She with her church and code, her extravagant beliefs
Me a creature of the road, a child of dust and grief

Meet me on the mad parade when the midnight bells are chiming
We'll dress up as the harlequin and the clown
Pile all the blunders that we've made in a tower too tall for climbing
And we'll burn, the damn thing down

She smoked a cigarette and blew smoke rings at the ceiling
She said 'if your problem is long standing, man, then why don't you try kneeling?
By your face I see you're still a sinner in the mist
Setting up your little will as king in place of His'

I said 'I've heard about sin down the long wheels of ages
A cracked book of lies with a thousand twisted pages'
Then I looked her in the eye and I asked her clear and plain
If your religion was a lie what would remain?

She said 'I've got my beating heart and I've two loving hands to heal with
And there's nothing in my day that I ain't got the strength to deal with'
I said 'Darling I profess, the same applies to me'
And as for all the rest, we agreed to disagree

Meet me on the mad parade when the midnight bells are chiming
We'll dress up as the harlequin and the clown
Pile all the blunders that we've made in a tower too tall for climbing
And we'll burn, the damn thing down