Play
There used to be a python-charming diva
By name of Leila Montesano-Jones
She laughed and cried on cue
With eyes of cobalt blue
And the circus through her bones
Leila left a lover and believer
In ev’ry country fair and seaside town
‘Til the serpent took its toll
And it crawled into her soul
And the poison pulled her down
Down to the dregs
The end of every glass
She was branded and abandoned
At a pretty pass
Down to the dregs
The barley and the maize
And she drank the living nightmares
Of her dying days
It’s not my job to shed a tear for Leila
I poured the drink and never questioned why
Though her face was lined with pain
From the grinding of the grain
She would always drain it dry
At night I hear her shouting out an order
For all the wayward spirits in her keep
And they join her in lament
For our feeble Spiegeltent
On her slow descent to sleep
Down to the dregs
The daze of the decayed
The indentured and the wretched
Who refuse to fade
Down to the dregs
Our vessel runs aground
At the bottom of the barrel
Where the rats lie drownedDown to the dregs
That’s where we can be found
At the bottom of the barrel
Where the rats lie drowned.