Please Do Not Decapitate Me

Please do not
Decapitate me
O my darling
Not on the day
That we’ve wed
Please do not
Decapitate me
O my darling
Til I shoot
Frank Wilson dead

Frank Wilson once stole
My bicycle
Way back when we
Were just kids
He’d been gone
For many hours
Left me nothing
But tire skids

The night sky
Had turned dark
But still I waited
All the same
Most of the other kids
Had left the park
But I needed
Someone to explain

The morning dogs
Had just begun to bark
To chase the roosters away
When we all suddenly heard
A mournful donkey
Begin to pray

Instinctively I somehow knew
There’d been a terrible crash
So we all began to follow
The trail of shattered glass

I ran with my friends
To see the damage
When I saw what Frank
Had done
He’d crashed my bike
Under the bus wheels
That fish eyed
Fish mouthed
Son of a gun

Of my bike
It was a total wreck
Hardly nothing left
To see
Just a twisted pile
Of useless dreck
Where once a beautiful bike
Used to be

Frank never did say
He was sorry
For crashing my bike
Into the bus
He just showed me
His dangling broken arm
And his bloody wounds
Full of pus

I vowed to get even
With him
Some future miserable day
Because every dog’s ship
Is sure to come in
And debtors
Have got to pay

So please do not
Decapitate me
O my darling
Not on this day
That we’ve wed
Please do not
Decapitate me
O my darling
Til I've shot
Frank Wilson dead

Move 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em out,
Move 'em on, head 'em out
Rawhide!
Set 'em out, ride 'em in
Ride 'em in, let 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in
Rawhide!

jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011