Everyone A Puzzle Lover Lyrics - 10,000 Maniacs

Why are some men born 

With minds that earn degrees 

The loving cups 

Gilded plaques 

Grace their study walls 

Hide the cracks 

While their genius is turned 

To works of tyranny then 

Off to market to market 

Go selling these 

With words so fiery and persuasive 

They steal cunningly 

Riches no one can exceed 

And why are some men born 

With a fate of poverty 

One firm bed 

For a swollen back 

Year by year 

The bodies wracked while 

Their obedience is had 

With gradual defeat 

By the pace by the pace 

And the urgency 

Through a muddled thought 

They phrase it 

God knows we're deceived 

Barter for 

What they need 

And where they go 

Disdain and jeering 

For fools to call 

The noble peasantry 

O how it puzzles me 

I pressed flat the accordion pleats 

That had gathered in his cotton sleeves 

While he thumbed 

Yes thumbed I wouldn't say caressed 

The final piece 

A mountain's crest 

Soon to reply assuredly 

O for man aged ninety years 

No words to waste on sermons 

He'd be pleased to answer 

Short and sincere 

Girl there's a nonsense 

In all these heaven measures 

It's a heathen creed 

So your grandma says 

But better to live by 

Drink it all in before it's dry 

He ended there with a rattle 

Cough cough 

I took away the long gone cold coffee cup 

As a trail of Camel ashes fell 

On the floor