liam.chamberlain[Intro]
(Distorted, slightly off-key calliope music plays faintly, accompanied by a low, unsettling hum. A single discordant music box note chimes.)
[Verse 1]
The ticket booth is boarded tight
Paint peels beneath the sickly moonlight
Sawdust drifts on empty air
Silence hangs, beyond compare
But listen close beneath the dread
That tinny melody, played by the d**d
A carousel that grinds and groans
Its horses frozen, cracking bones
[Chorus]
Hear the Calliope's last laugh (Distorted warble)
Echoing down the broken path (Faint, wheezing organ)
Clowns leer in shadows deep and vast (Cymbal c***h with reverb)
Where childhood dreams are fading fast (Whispered echo)
Round and round the nightmare goes (Music swells, slightly jarring)
Nobody comes and no one knows (Sudden drop, low drone)
[Verse 2]
The big top sags, a rotten shroud
A spectral ringmaster, lost and proud
Calls out acts that never start
To an audience with a broken heart
A puppet master, strings undone
Dangles limp beneath the sun
That never truly breaks the grey
Of this eternal circus day
[Chorus]
Hear the Calliope's last laugh (Distorted warble intensifies)
Echoing down the broken path (Organ sounds choked)
Clowns leer in shadows deep and vast (Sharp, metallic scrape)
Where childhood dreams are fading fast (Distant, distorted giggle)
Round and round the nightmare goes (Music speeds up erratically)
Nobody comes and no one knows (Slow, heavy drum b**t)
[Bridge]
The cotton candy melts to tar
Sticks to the roof beneath the star...less sky
Funhouse mirrors crack and twist
Reflecting something they insist
Was never really standing there
Just circus music, filling the air... with lies
(Distorted music takes over briefly, dissonant and jarring)
[Verse 3]
A final balloon, deflated, grey
Skitters where the children play... no more
The fortune teller's cards are strewn
Predicting only endless gloom
The calliope gasps its final tune
A dying wheeze beneath the moon
[Chorus]
Hear the Calliope's last laugh (Weak, sputtering warble)
Echoing down the broken path (Organ fades into static)
Clowns leer in shadows deep and vast (Single, sour trumpet note)
Where childhood dreams are fading fast... to dust (Whisper)
Round and round the nightmare slows... to stop (Music grinds haltingly)
Nobody comes... and no one knows... we're lost (Final, discordant chord)
[Outro]
(The final chord hangs, distorted and decaying into silence, leaving only the faintest, imagined echo of the calliope and a low, pervasive hum. Silence returns, heavier than before.)
