I passed downtown the other day
plenty interesting characters came my way
and the way they talking I tell no lie
there’s more to this town than meets the eye
I passed a man beggin’ for bread
he said “I am Lazarus, come back from the dead,
but I feel the Lord waste his time
‘cause if I don’t eat soon, is tonight I’m back in the tomb.”

Chorus
and all of the corbeaux followin’ me
ah see the cobeaux followin’
I run and hide, but high in the sky
ah see the corbeaux followin’
walking and talking, crying and trying
pleading and bleeding from morning to evening
still everywhere I run they followin’ me.

At the corner by Abercromby
a next interesting character passed by me
the man foot bus’ up, he limping in pain
and the whole while he walkin’ like he’s dragging chains
but he reciting in perfect rhyme
saying “I’m a prisoner yet I’ve done no crime,
you see poverty is meh jail
so I lookin’ for a next dollar to pay the bail.”

By the Park Street gas station
I passed a man claiming to be Napoleon
he said the prison wasn’t so bad
so they let him out to suffer on the streets of Trinidad
but he say today he get lucky
I asked what he go do with the money
he said every king needs a queen
so he goin’ Robert Street to look for Josephine.

I passed a man bathing in the drain
he said “I am Jesus Christ come back again”
and as I passed I turned to see
a man across the road cussin’ he for blasphemy.
but as I walked I started to wonder
which man of the two was the blasphemer:
the one who said he was the Lord himself
or the next one who cyan’t see the lord in someone else.
Lavway
pwissione leve
mete lumiere bay Congo Bara
leve, leve
mete lumiere bay Congo Bara

(Prisoners, stand up
give some light to Congo Bara
Get up, get up
Give some light to Congo Bara.)


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* Corbeaux are large black vultures found in the southern Caribbean.
** Abercromby and Park Street are roads in downtown Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
*** A lavway is a call-and-response chant traditionally sung by stickfighters or Carnival revelers.