You gentlemen
can watch
while I'm scrubbing the floors,
and I'm scrubbing the floors
while you're gawking.
And maybe once you tip me
and it makes you feel swell,
on a ratty waterfront in a ratty
old hotel.
And you never guess to who you're talking,
you never guess to who
you're talking.
Suddenly one night
there's a scream in the night,
and you wonder
what could that have been.
And you see me kind of grinning
while I'm scrubbing,
an d you wonder
what she got to grin.
And a ship, a black freighter,
with a skull on its masthead,
will be com ing in.
You gentlemen can say,
hey girl, finish the floors,
get upstairs, make the beds,
earn your keep here.
You toss me your tips
and look out at the shifts,
but I'm counting your heads
while I make up the beds,
cause there's nobody
gonna sleep here.
Tonight, none of you will sleep here.
Then that night,
there's a bang in the night,
and you yell,
who's there kicking up a row?
And you see me kinda
starin' out the window
And you say,
what's she got to stare at now?
And the ship, the black freighter
Turns around in the harbor
Shootin' guns from the bow
Then you gentlemen
can wipe off
that laugh from your face
Every building in town is a flat one
Your whole stinkin' place will
be down to the ground
Only this cheap hotel's there
and up seven sun
And you yell, why do
they spare that one?
And you say, why do they spare that one?
All the night through with
the noise and to -do
You wonder who's
the person lives up there
Then you see me stepping out
into the morning
Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair
And the ship, the Black Freighter
Runs the flag up its masthead
An d the cheering's there
By noontime the dark is all swarming
with men coming off of that
ghostly freighter.
They're moving in the shadows
where no one can see
and they're chaining up people
and bringing them to me, asking me,
kill them now or later.
Asking me, kill them now or later.
Noon by the clock,
and so still on the dock,
you can hear a fog
horn miles away.
In that quiet of death, I'll say, right now.
And they pile up the bodies,
I'll say, That'll earn ya.
Then the ship, the black freighter,
Disappears out to sea,
And on it is a me.