They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway...
They say that Life's a game and then they take the board away...
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story...
Then leave you all to improvise their Vicious Cabaret.

In no longer pretty cities there are fingers in the kitties,
there are warrants, forms, and chitties, and a jackboot on the stair...
There's sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime,
and at least the trains all run on time but they don't go anywhere.

Facing their responsibilities either on their backs or on their knees,
there are ladies who simply freeze and dare not turn away...
And the widows who refuse to cry will be dressed in garter and bow-tie
and be taught to kick their legs up in this vicious cabaret.

At last the 2006 show!
The ballet on the burning stage!
The documentary seen upon the fractured screen...
The dreadful poem scrawled upon the crumpled page!

There's a policeman with an honest soul
that has seen whose head is on the pole
and he grunts and fills his briar bowl
with a feeling of unease.

Then he briskly frisks the torn remains
for finger print or crimson stains
and endeavors to ignore the chains
that he walks in to his kness,
while his master in the dark nearby
inspects the hands with brutal eye
that have never brushed a lover's thigh
but have squeezed a nation's throat...

And he hungers in his secret dreams
for the harsh embrace of cruel machines.
But his lover is not what she seems
and she will not leave a note.

At last the 2006 show!
The situation tragedy!
Grand opera slick with soap!
Cliff-hangers with no hope!

The water-colour in the flooded gallery.

There's a girl who'll push but will not shove
and she's deperate for her father's love.
She believes the hand beneath the glove
may be one she needs to hold.

Though she doubts her host's moralities
she decides that she is more at ease
in the land of doing-as-you-please,
than outside in the cold.

But the backdrops peel and the sets give way
and the cast get eaten by the play.
There's a murderer at the matinee.
There are dead men in the aisles.
And the patrons and the actors too
are uncertain if the show is through,
but with sidelong looks await their cue...

...but the frozen mask just smiles.

At last the 2006 show!
The torch-song no-one ever sings!
The curfew chorus line!
The comedy divine!

The bulging eyes of puppets, strangled by their strings!

There's thrills and chills and girls galore,
there's sing-songs and surprises!
There's something here for everyone,
reserve your seat today!
There's mischiefs and malarkies...
but no queers...
or Yids...
or darkies...
within this bastard's carnival--

THIS VICIOUS CABARET!

-V