Decemberists A Cautionary Song Lyrics

A Cautionary Song Lyrics

there's a place your mother goes when everybody else is soundly sleeping 

through the lights of beacon street 

and if you listen you can hear her weeping, she's weeping, 

cause the gentlemen are calling and the snow is softly falling on her
petticoats 

and she's standing in the harbor and she's waiting for the sailors in the jolly
boat

see how they approach 



with dirty hands and trousers torn they grapple 'til she's safe within their
keeping 

a gag is placed between her lips to keep her sorry tongue from any speaking, or
screaming 

and they row her out to packets where the sailor's sorry racket calls for
maidenhead 

and she's scarce above the gunwales when her clothes fall to a bundle and she's
laid in bed on the upper deck 



and so she goes from ship to ship, her ankles clasped, her arms so rudely
pinioned 

'til at last she's satisfied the lot of the marina's teeming minions and their
opinions 



and they tell her not to say a thing to cousin, kindred, kith or kin or she'll
end up dead 

and they throw her dirty dollars and return her to the habor where she goes to
bed 

and this is how your fed 



so be kind to your mother 

though she may seem an awful bother 

and the next time she tries to feed you collard greens 

remember what she does when you're asleep