[Intro: menacing gravel male MC, slow, over plucked cello] Halloween, room three, one bulb, one chair One tired cop with coffee and a dummy sittin' there [Verse 1: menacing gravel male MC, grinning] They brought me in a bag with a tag on my shoe Propped me in the hot seat like a joke for the crew Paint chipped on my cheek and my bowtie askew Same red grin since nineteen eighty-two Detective leanin' in with his coffee and his badge Sayin', "Talk, dummy, talk," and the night shift laughs Next room over is the man who held me all them years Tellin' every cop in town it was me, through the tears Front-row heckler at the club, four shows straight Now his drink's still sweatin', and he's three hours late [Hook: menacing gravel male MC, low] Dummy up, dummy up, lips don't move Got a wooden face and nothin' that I gotta prove You can shine that light till the bulb goes black I don't talk unless a hand is in my back [Verse 2: menacing gravel male MC, nastier] Forty years on a knee, and I learned how to sit Every laugh he ever cashed, I'm the one who wrote it He took the bows, I rode home in the trunk In a case lined in felt with a lock goin' clunk Every night that loudmouth hollered, "I can see your lips" Every night my partner smiled and swallowed it in sips I don't swallow nothin', I got nothin' to swallow Got a hinge for a jaw and a head that's hollow Cop says, "Who did it?" Man, ask the man next door He's the one with the hands, I don't even touch the floor [Hook: menacing gravel male MC, low] Dummy up, dummy up, lips don't move Got a wooden face and nothin' that I gotta prove You can shine that light till the bulb goes black I don't talk unless a hand is in my back [Bridge: menacing gravel male MC, slower, the carnival organ bends out of tune] Throw your voice, throw your voice, throw it far as it goes Funny how a voice comes home to the man who throws Forty years he put his words in my wooden mouth Halloween I put mine in his, and he let it out [Verse 3: menacing gravel male MC, cold] Detective shuts his notebook, says, "Well, that's the case" Man next door signed it with my grin on his face Cop picks me up, says, "Sorry, little guy" Zips me in the bag and won't look me in the eye Funny thing about a dummy, nobody checks his hands Funny how a quiet thing goes everywhere it plans Evidence room, shelf six, I'll be sittin' with a grin Next year's a yard sale, and some kid's gonna let me in [Final Hook: a pitched-down demon voice doubles the gravel male MC] Dummy up, dummy up, lips don't move Got a wooden face and nothin' that I gotta prove You can shine that light till the bulb goes black I don't need a hand, I never needed a hand in my back [Outro: pitched-down demon voice alone] Next [End]
