The Ballad of Arthur Kaye - Part I

Arthur Kaye, he was born with the head of a goat and cloven hooves where he should have had feet They made the most unfortunate racket whenever he ran down the street A clitter and clatter, a clip and a clop, all that noise was poor Arthur's sole sin You knew if he were off to the pub or the shops by the direction of his bloody great din God forbid you'd ever hear the sound of his hoof when you'd wake in the midst of the night If ever he managed to get on your tin roof, he could give you one hell of a fright But our Arthur was given a heart made of gold with a kind streak as wide as the Nile He loved all the folks whether younguns or old and he graced them all with his smile He'd run errands for grannies stuck in their beds, he'd give rides on his back to small boys When a blind man needed a book to be read there was Arthur turning pages with joy The young ladies all loved the way that he'd flirt when ever he had half a chance With his horns and his hooves and a new gingham shirt he made their eyes glow with thoughts of romance Then one day to the town came a man with a book it was ancient and bound in gold leather He wore a black robe and a serious look and he brought forth a change in the weather He spoke of dark things, of creatures with wings and portents of great evil to come And he said that Arthur was the source of these things and should be sent back to whence he had come Now the townsfolk grew quiet and then, they grew fearful at the grim proclamations he'd made For he'd read from the book when he'd given the earful and those words made them sorely afraid He accused them of losing their belief in the book, why else could that creature be here? A mob quickly formed, as that was all that it took to turn them against their own peer