MISTER HENRY LEE
He burns like a prophet
He gleams like a goat
Got meat in his bonnet
And a knot in his rope
He’s covered in coal dust
In a house made of tin
He’s shoveling time
Back into a bin
Mister Henry Lee, Mister Henry Lee
He leaps from a ladder
Onto a bed
And keeps his prayerbook
Tied with a silver thread
He’s frozen in a gesture
Of gratitude
In a light beam fixture
In the back of the room
Mister Henry Lee, Mister Henry Lee
Ask for ten
He’ll give you eleven
A beautiful soul
Gets you into heaven
He fades in the dust, naturally
Cause the smaller you are
The freer you’ll be
The smaller you are, the freer you’ll be
He had a thousand wives
He’d gloat like a goose
Till an angel of the Lord
Said to cut them loose
He scrawled his poems
On the leaves of a tree
And he signed every one
Henry Lee
Mister Henry Lee, Mister Henry Lee
He said “God is great
God is good
Don’t let him kill you
Cause he would if he could
God is great
God is grand
But don’t you touch his fiery hand”
Like Henry Lee, Mister Henry Lee
The smaller you are the freer you’ll be…