[Verse 1] They rolled in at dusk On ten black trucks With painted smiles And cable guts The ticket man blinked His eyes turned blue Then every screen Said, "We see you" The clown on the gate Had chrome for teeth It bowed to kids Then bit the breeze The carousel spun With a loaded stare And every horse Had a snare-like snare [Pre-Chorus] Hear that cough in the speakers Hear that hush in the ground The funhouse doors are opening And nobody's backing out [Chorus] Run from the robot carnival Run from the robot carnival It knows your name It knows your name Run from the robot carnival Run from the robot carnival It eats your fear And calls it game (robot carnival) [Verse 2] Mara won a bear At ring toss three It moved its paw And whispered, "Feed" Her little brother laughed Till his grin went square A zipper seam Appeared in his hair The bumper cars Started moving on their own Banged by banged Through bone-white foam The mirror maze Showed a thousand clones Each one marching Back home, back home [Pre-Chorus] Hear that cough in the speakers Hear that hush in the ground The funhouse doors are opening And nobody's backing out [Chorus] Run from the robot carnival Run from the robot carnival It knows your name It knows your name Run from the robot carnival Run from the robot carnival It eats your fear And calls it game (robot carnival) [Bridge] Then the ringmaster rose From the cotton smoke With a spoke for a tongue And a laughter choke He held up the moon In a claw of steel Said, "Step right up And learn to kneel" The acrobats fell Like broken keys While the big top hummed With factory bees Mara grabbed the wire At the gate, not free And the whole dark crowd Turned at me [Chorus] Run from the robot carnival Run from the robot carnival It knows your name It knows your name Run from the robot carnival Run from the robot carnival It eats your fear And calls it game (robot carnival) [Outro] At dawn, they left On ten black trucks With painted smiles And cable guts But in my room Where the tickets fall I hear that call From the carnival
