Decemberists Cautionary Song Lyrics

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 harbour

And she's waiting for the sailors in the jolly boat

See how they approach



With dirty hands and trousers torn they grapple

Till 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

Till 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 you're 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