A puppeteer came into town
He set up his booth and the children they gathered
Around to hear stories of old Mister Punch
How the fox got away with the gamekeeper's lunch
Of star-spangled lovers and hapless buffoons
How the cow jumped right over the silvery moon
And the shadows, they grew never longer
No the shadows came not through the door
And so who will come see my puppet show tonight
I have tramped many miles with my box of delights
With the curtains pulled back and the puppets revealed
We'll give old Fortuna a crank of the wheel
With Bango, Beelzebub, Old Mister Punch,
I will jiggle the arcana round to my touch
Lest the shadows they grow ever longer
Lest the shadows they come through the door
Somebody threw the first stone
'We don't want your sort here, you're causing a nuisance
Corrupting our children with stories and lies
This is not fiction, this is real life!
Pack up your puppets and get out of town'
And they rattled their pots and their pans as he ran
And the shadows they grew ever longer
Yes the shadows they came through the door
The puppeteer fled to the woods
Nursing his bruises, two rabbits a-roasting
When out of the gloom came a girl and a boy
Hungry for sorrow, ravenous for joy
Fire in their bellies and stars in their eyes
And the lines on the puppeteer's face came alive
And the shadows they grew never longer, no no no
The shadows came not through the door