[Verse 1] I was walking through the backstreets Where the daylight barely stays Past the shuttered little cafés And the rust on iron gates At the end of a quiet alley Where the cobbles twist and bend There’s a sign that swings in silence “Alfonso’s Curios — Dead End” Dust on jars and broken mirrors Clocks that tick but show no time Silver spoons and cracked old violins And maps of lands long left behind Then I saw it in the corner Rolled and bound with faded twine Just a rug of red and amber Like a fire trapped in design [Pre-Chorus] I said, “Alfonso, what’s the story? Where’d this old thing come from then?” He leaned back in his wooden chair And spoke like this again [Chorus] He said “An Arabian stranger left it here Wouldn’t say from where or why Just laid it on the counter With a strange look in his eye Said ‘The carpet chooses its master’ Then he turned and walked away So if it’s calling out to you my friend I suppose it’s yours today” ⸻ [Verse 2] We haggled like old sailors Over tea and dusty gold Till the price was fair between us And the story had been told So I carried it through lamplight Past the pubs and empty square Thinking all the way back homeward How it’d look before my chair I rolled it by the fireplace Where the embers softly glowed The pattern seemed to shimmer Like it breathed beneath the coals So I poured a little whisky Let the quiet take the room And the last thing I remember Was the firelight and the gloom ⸻ [Chorus] Alfonso said “An Arabian stranger left it here Wouldn’t say from where or why Just laid it on the counter With a strange look in his eye Said ‘The carpet chooses its master’ Then he turned and walked away So if it’s calling out to you my friend I suppose it’s yours today” ⸻ [Bridge] Somewhere in the darkest hour When the house was fast asleep I heard a whisper in the silence Calling softly from beneath My feet moved like they knew the way Though my mind was slow and numb Till I found myself just standing Where the woven patterns run Then the floor began to tremble And the fire began to sway The carpet rolled like thunder And the walls just slipped away ⸻ [Verse 3] Up above the frozen rooftops Past the chimneys and the snow Over rivers black as midnight And the silver streets below Through the clouds and into starlight Where the constellations roam On a woven road of magic Far beyond the world I know Cities carved from desert moonlight Golden towers in the sand Markets bright with lantern fire And strange music in the land I was laughing in the cold wind Like a child set free to roam On the rug from Alfonso’s corner That had chosen me alone ⸻ [Final Chorus] Now if you wander down that alley Where the crooked lanterns glow Past the dust and broken wonders In Alfonso’s little show And you see a space that’s empty Where a certain rug once lay Just remember what the stranger said Before he walked away “The carpet chooses its master Not the other way around” So if you hear it calling softly Better follow that sound
