Form a ring and wind and twine   Round the ol' grape vine   Heavy on the wire from the house   Salt the cow and kill the calf   Meet yer lonesome with a once and a half   Gent¹s on the east and ladies on the south      The solemn boy carries his silver damage   Sold but for, the number and the image      His eyes have saddened making wine from the stems   Empty ears longing for the wood and the skins   Paper yellowed from the salt and the failure      When he sings he slurs   & uses the meat of his thigh   T¹hold the book he wrote when he was lame   So wrapped up in his flat baritone   No castrato could woo him in from the rain      For he never raised his voice when his britches   Was spillin¹ over with that honey truck richness         His eyes have saddened making wine from the stems   Empty ears longing for the wood and the skins   Paper yellowed from the salt and the failure      Well the stylus hit the patches   As he spit on the splashes   & sought out the scratches in the vinyl   'neath a needle topped with nickels   To keep the tunes a-goin'   Cracklin', croonin' & crowin'      Multi-colored, hard-boiled & hidden   In the corners, with the dogs rusty remnants      His eyes have saddened making wine from the stems   Empty ears longing for the wood and the skins   Paper yellowed from the salt and the failure