My mother was a neighbor she'd go visiting around
When he says you tried to blackmail me, you're just as bad as I
Oh Coleen, you don't even know me
He says, go and do your damndest, throw your mother to the streets
Were washed away by what came roaring through my brain
But the Mayor of Candor lied
When he offered me his only daughter
There is no one I'd ever place above you
When I find him in the countryside he is not alone
As she jumps back from his arms, I look into my mother's eyes
To take her across the water
The Mayor's at my mercy and I hear my own voice say
The Mayor fought my courtship for he'd made other plans
But I'll be with your daughter, is my meaning clear?
One day with father on his tractor and mother off again
I watch the car drive up, I watch the passengers unload
I had a month of joy in heaven from this deal I'd made in hell
I go to find the mayor and work out what I can
He is holding a woman and imagine my surprise
And there she'd stand a crying in the dawn as I was leaving
She was the daughter of the Mayor
For I had found the answer to a plowboy's lonely prayer
He laughs and sneers and says, of course dear son
What a thing to do to a young man in love
The day after his re-election and the victory celebration
What a thing to do to a young man in love
The Mayor of Candor tried
And as the summer follows spring so does the winter follow fall
I spit out my hatred and my fury at his lies
As I look into his leering aged wrinkled mirror of my own face
And so I'd go sneaking in the evening
My father was a farmer he'd go tilling in the ground
But I didn't care
Oh Coleen, you know how much I love you
Of course she isn't there, of course I should have known
The Mayor of Candor tried
The day that they return I stand waiting on the road
What was to happen then my friend a prophet could not tell
To have you there's nothing that's below me
And the world will never know of what I've seen here, sir
Your run for re-election is just one month away
But he is not at his office, he is not at his home
I said, I hate your father, it's so hard not to strike him
When he offered me his only daughter
You know it's been too many years, I had to be discreet
But the Mayor's rueful smile says the piper must be paid
What a thing to do to your daughter
But time always passes after all
My mother looks in horror at the compromise we made
She said, you know I love you because you're so much like him
And as he stands there saying we're just two of a kind
To take her across the water
It hits me like a thunderbolt exploding in my mind
The Mayor says that she has stayed, the decision was her own
All my thoughts of outrage, embarrassment and pain
Where do you think you came from in the first place?
The Mayor takes his family on a month long foreign vacation
The Mayor of Candor lied
He saw her married to a better man than a boy with farmer's hands
