Esther
Phish

It was late one fall night at a fairground near town
When Esther first saw the Armenian man
Who groveled toward her and stood by her side
With a bucket that swung in his hand

His grin stretched the folds of his pasty white cheeks
And his lips hurled a dollop of murk on the curb
And the lights from the rides showed a mischievous sparkle
That flashed in his hollow eyed stare

He said Little girl, you can chop off my legs
And then peel off my socks if you want to.
But I'd rather you took this old puppet from me
That I hold in my pail as we speak.

And he stood looking down at the innocent girl
And she stared at the bucket bewildered
Til he lifted the doll for the young girl to see
And a giant smile grew on his face
She saw the doll's eyes and she couldn't resist
And she thanked the man quickly and ran to the church
And she burst through the door with puppet held high
And a hush filled the chapel, and the people looked mean

Esther tried in vain to pacify the mob
Quibble grew to spat, to wrangle, then to brawl
The frenzied congregation struggled desperately to fetch
The pretty puppet snugly nestled deep in Esther's leather sack
Through the window of the church a storm began to rage
And Esther knew the time had come to flee

She scurried down the aisle toward the doorway in the distance
And out into the rainstorm where she felt she would be free
But the wind was blowing harder
And her skirt began to billow
Until finally her feet began to lift

And she rose above the people and the houses
and the chimneys
And Esther and the doll were set adrift
Floating higher over the hills, and the valleys and treetops
they'd flutter and glide
Soaring and turning suspended on air
With the earth far below them they'd tumble
And dive through the clouds

And she began to plummet earthward till she
Landed in the nasty part of town

She glanced about the village sure to find the evil men
Who rob and pillage in the darkest hour of night
Nervously she fumbled for the pouch that held the
Puppet on her rump.

Feeling quite outnumbered Esther hid behind
A nearby pile of lumber, where she waited
Till the dawn
Cause it would have been a blunder to
Succumb to a hoodlum on the prowl

When the morning came, she wandered through the streets
Along the chilly lake that lay beside the town
At last a peaceful moment, but she thought she heard a sound
It was an angry mob of joggers coming up to knock her down

As Esther stood and shook her head
The joggers were approaching
And she knew she had no choice left but to swim
As the frosty water sank its bitter teeth into her hide
She tried to slide the heavy clothing from her skin

Naked now she made her way toward the shore
When suddenly she felt a tiny tugging at her toe.
And the puppet she'd forgotten wrapped its tiny
Little arms around her ankle and wouldn't let her go.

The waves seemed to open and swallow her whole
As the doll pulled her down through the eerie green deep
And the sound of the laughing old man filled her ears
As she drifted away to a tranquil
And motionless sleep.


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Lyrics by Phish

  2001   46 Days   555   A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing   Ac/dc Bag   Ac\/dc Bag   Access Me   Aftermath   Albert   All of These Dreams   Alumni Blues   Amazing Grace [DVD][Live]   Amazing Grace [Instrumental]   Amazing Grace [Live]   Amazing Grace Instrumental [Instrumental]   Anarchy   And So to Bed   Anything But Me   Army Of One   Auld Lang Syne   Avenu Malkenu   Avinu Malkenu   Axilla   Axilla (part Two)   Axilla I   Axilla II   Back on the Train   Backwards Down the Number Line   Bathtub Gin   Big Black Furry Creature From Mars   Billy Breathes   Birds Of A Feather   Birdwatcher   Bitchin' Again   Bitchin' Again   Bittersweet Motel   Blaze On   Blue And Lonesome   Bold as Love   Boogie On Reggae Woman - Phish   Bouncin' Around the Room   Bouncing Around The Room   Breath And Burning   Brian & Robert   Brian & Robert   Buffalo Bill   Bug   Bye Bye Foot   Carini Had A Lumpy Head   Carolina   Carolina On My Mind   Catapult   Cavern   Cavern [Live]   Chalk Dust Torture   Character Zero   Cities   Colonel Forbin's Ascent   Colonel Forbin's Ascent Narrative - Version1   Colonel Forbin's Ascent Narrative - Version2   Colonel Forbin's Ascent   Contact   Corinna   Cracklin' Rosie   Crimes Of The Mind   Crowd Control   Dahlia   Daniel Saw The Stone   Dear Mrs. Reagan   Demand   Destiny Unbound   Destiny Unbound Modifications   Devotion to a Dream   Dinner & a Movie   Dinner And A Movie   Dirt   Discern   Dog Faced Boy   Dog Log   Dog Log (or Doggone Dog)   Dogs Stole Things   Down With Disease   Driver   End Of Session   Esther (alternate Version)   Family Picture   Famous Mockingbird   Farmhouse   Fast Enough for You   Fee   Fikus   Fish Bass   Fluff's Travels   Fluff's Travels   Fluffhead   Fly Famous Mockingbird   Foam   Fooled By Images   Frankie Says   Free   Free [DVD]   Friday   Friends   Fuck Your Face   Fuego   Funky Bitch [Live]   Ghost   Gin & Juice   Gin & Juice   Gin And Juice (snoop Dogg Cover)   Glide   Golgi Apparatus   Gone   Good Times Bad Times   Good Times, Bad Times   Good Times, Bad Times [Encore]   Gotta Jibboo   Grind   Guelah Papyrus   Gumbo   Guyute   Halley's Comet   Halley's Comet   Harpua   Harry Hood   Have Mercy [Live]   He Ent to the Bog   Heavy Things   Hello My Baby   Hold Your Head Up   Home   Horn   I Am Hydrogen   I Am Hydrogen [Live]   I Didn't Know   I Didn't Know   I Know a Little   I Saw It Again   Icculus   If I Could   If I Only Had a Brain   If I Told You   In a Misty Glade   Ingest   Insects   Introduction Narration   It's Ice   Jennifer Dances   Jessica   Jesus Just Left Chicago   Jesus Left Chicago   Julius   King of Nothing   Kissed By Mist   Kung   La Grange   Language Instructions   Lawn Boy   Lengthwise   Letter to Jimmy Page   Libertyville   Life on Mars [DVD]   Lifeboy   Limb By Limb   Lizards   Llama   Lllama   Love You   Low Rider   Lucy In The Subway   Makisupa Policeman   Manteca   Marijuana   Maze   Mcgrupp And The Watchful Hosemasters   Meat   Mexican Cousin   Mike's Song   Mike's Song   Minkin   Miss You   Mist   Mock Song   Mound   Mountains In The Mist   My Friend My Friend   My Friend, My Friend   My Mind's Got A Mind Of It's Own   My Mind's Got A Mind Of Its Own   My Mind's Got A Mind Of It's Own   My Sweet One   N.i.c.u.   Never   Nicu   No Dogs Allowed   No Men In No Man's Land   NO2   Nothing   Nothing [DVD]   Old Home Place [DVD]   Ordinary Day   Paul And Silas   Pebbles and Marbles   Phish - Seven Below   Piper   Poor Heart   Possum   Prep School Hippie   Prince Caspian   Psycho Killer   Punch You In The Eye   Quadrophonic Toppling   Reba   Revolution's Over   Revolution's Over   Rift   Rocky Top   Rockytop   Roggae   Roses Are Free   Round Room   Run Like An Antelope   Running Out Of Time   Sample In A Jar   Sand   Sanity   Satin Doll   Scent of A Mule   Scents And Subtle Sounds   Scents And Subtle Sounds (Intro)   Secret Smile   Self   Seven Below   Shafty   Shaggy Dog   Shine   Silent In The Morning   Simple   Simple [DVD]   Simple [DVD][*]   Sing Monica   Slave To The Traffic Light   Sleep   Sloth   Sneaking Sally Thru the Alley   Somanatin   Sparkle   Sparkle [Live]   Spices   Split Open and Melt   Spread It 'round   Spread It 'round   Stash   Steep   Strange Design   Susie Q   Suspicious Minds   Suspicious Minds   Suspicious Minds [DVD][*]   Suzie Greenberg   Suzy Greenberg [DVD]   Suzy Greenberg [Encore]   Suzy Greenberg [Live]   Sweet Adeline [Live]   Swept Away   Talk   Taste   Tela   The Ballad of Curtis Loew (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover)   The Connection   The Curtain   The Divided Sky   The Happy Whip and Dung Song   The Horse   The I Am Hydrogen   The Ice   The Inlaw Josie Wales   The Line   The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday   The Mango Song   The Moma Dance   The Name Is Slick   The Old Home Place   The Squirming Coil   The Star-Spangled Banner   The Wedge   Theme From the Bottom   Things People Do   Thunderhead   Tide Turns   Timber Ho! 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