Poison Chords

Lyrics & chords

[Intro 1]
[Em][C]
[Em][C]
[Em][C]

[Verse 1]
[Em]Mr.
Pugh, in the schoolhouse opposite,
takes up the morning tea to
Mrs.
Pugh an[C]d whispers
on the [D#dim]stairs.[Ddim][Em]
Here's [A]your ar[Asus4]senic, dear,
[Em]and your weed -killer biscuit.
[G][Em][Am][Em][C][Fm]
I've [Bbm]rotted your parakeet,
[Db]I've spat in t[Fm]he vases,
I've put cheese in the mouth
[Gdim]-holes.
Here's [Em]your...
Nice tea, dear.
Too much sugar.
[G]You haven't [C]tasted it yet, dear.
Too much milk, then.
Admit it,
Jenkins, [Em]that it's poetry.
Why, yes, dear.
Then it's time to get up.
Give me my glasses.
[G]No, not my reading [C]glasses.
I want to look out.
I want to [Em]see.[C][Am]
[G]In [C]the blind, drawn,
dark din[Fm]ing room o[Em]f
Schoolhouse, dusty and echo
[C]ing as a dining [Em]room in a vault,
Mr. and
Mrs.
Pugh [C]are silent over cold,
[Am]grainy cotta[Ebdim]ge pie.[Ddim][Em][Am][Em]
Mr.
Pugh [Am]reads, as he forks the shroud meat in,
[Bb]from[Fm] the lives of the great pois[G#]oners.
[Bb]He has found a plain,
[Bbm]brown paper cover [Fm]on the bo[Bb]ok.
[Fm]Slyly, between slow [Em]mouthfuls,
he [G]sidespies [Am]up at
Mrs.
[Em]Poole, poisons her with his eye,
He goes on read[A]ing.[Asus4]
[Em]He underlines certain pa[Fm]ssages and smiles
[Db]in secre[Bbm]t.[Db][Fm][Ab][Gdim][Em]
[C]
Do not read a table,
Mrs.
[Em]Pugh.
She swallows a digestive tablet
as big as a horse's
Washing it down with [G]clouded
pea [C]-soup water.
Some persons were brought
up in pig -styles.
[Em]Pigs don't read a table,
Bitterly she flicks dust from the broken court.
[C]It settles on the pie in a thin, gnat -wing.
Pigs can[Em]'t read, my dear.
I [G]know one [Em]who c[C]an.[D#dim]
[G#dim][Ddim][Em]
Alone in the hissing laborat
[A]ory of his wishes,
[Em]Mr.
Pugh minces among bad -bats
and geroborums,
tiptoes [C]through spinnies [Em]of murdering herbs,
agony dancing [C]in his [Fm]crucibles,[Bbsus4][Fm]
and mixes, especially for
Mrs.
Pugh, the venomous potage
unknown [Em]to toxicologists.
[Am]She will scald and b[Em]ite her finger
until her ears fall off [G]like figs,
Her toes [A]grow big and black as balloon[Em]s,
and steam [Fm]comes screaming out of her [Bbsus4]neck.[Fm][Db][Gdim][Em]
Mrs.
Pugh smiles.
An icicle forms in the cold
air of the dining vault.