Brian Hennessy sat back
And let the gypsy read his palm
When he saw her eyes grow wide and wild and dark
And she whispered through her toothless gums
And clutched him by the arm
She said, "Boy I fear I see the devil's mark"
Brian Hennessy just laughed
And pealed the ten-spot from his roll
Cause he'd never ever known the taste of fear
But he wondered why the summer nights
Should suddenly turn cold
As the gypsy's words come ringing in his ear
"You can run, you can hide
Brian Hennessy", she cried
"But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand
And say how does it feel
To have dealt your final deal?
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man"
Brian Hennessy walked through
The doors of the Dining Dog Saloon
Where he stopped to have his nightly glass of gin
And the one-eyed scar-faced stranger
A dealing blackjack in the gloom
Winked his ghastly grey glass eye and dealt him in
Brian watched in fascination
As the stranger's fingers flew
Why he'd never seen such cheating done before
And his hand closed round a handle
Of his snub-nose 32
When the gypsy's warning come to him once more
"You can run, you can hide
Brian Hennessy", she cried
"But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand
And say how does it feel
To have dealt your final deal?
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man"
Brian Hennessy just folded up
His cards and walked away
Holding back the rage that burned his soul
And he stopped to have some coffee
At the Mockingbird Cafe
But that slender blue eyed waitress was his goal
And a few words from his silver tongue
Soon turned her flutty head
She said, "My husband's out of town, you need not fear"
But as he pressed her to the softness
Of her flutty-feathered bed
On her pillows he saw written bright and clear
Oh, you can run, you can hide
Daring letters clear and wide
Said you can't escape the fate that's in your hand
And say how does it feel
To have dealt your final deal
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man
Brian Hennessy he stumbled down
The stairs into the street
And from that day on he changed his wicked life
And he never drunk or gambled
And he never dealt no dough
And he never touched another fellow's wife
And years later he met the gypsy
When his days were almost done
He said, "Ha, ha, I beat your curse don't you know"
But when she saw the frightened, trembling
Withered wretch that he'd become
She said, "Brian, you died twenty years ago"
"Because you ran and you hid
That's exactly what you did
But you didn't escape the fate that's in your hand
And say how did it feel
To have dealt your final deal?
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man"