LITMIR.BIZ

      Up on the white veranda

      She wears a necktie and a Panama hat.

      Her passport shows a face

      From another time and place

      She looks nothin’ like that.

      And all the remnants of her recent past

      Are scattered in the wild wind.

      She walks across the marble floor

      Where a voice from the gambling room is callin’ her to come on in.

      She smiles, walks the other way

      As the last ship sails and the moon fades away

      From Black Diamond Bay.

      As the morning light breaks open the Greek comes down

      And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write

      “Pardon, monsieur” the desk clerk says

      Carefully removes his fez

      “Am I hearing you right?”

      And as the yellow fog is lifting

      The Greek is quickly heading for the second floor

      She passes him on the spiral staircase

      Thinking he’s the Soviet Ambassador

      She starts to speak, but he walks away

      As the storm clouds rise and the palm branches sway

      On Black Diamond Bay.

      A soldier sits beneath the fan

      Doing business with a tiny man who sells him a ring

      Lightning strikes, the lights blow out

      The desk clerk wakes and begins to shout

      “Can you see anything?”

      Then the Greek appears on the second floor

      In his bare feet with a rope around his neck

      While the loser in the gambling room lights up a candle

      Says “Open up another deck”

      But the dealer say “Attendez-vous, s’il vous plait”

      As the rain beats down and the cranes fly away

      From Black Diamond Bay.

      The desk clerk heard the woman laugh

      As he looked around the aftermath and the soldier got tough

      He tried to grab the woman’s hand

      Said, “Here’s a ring it cost a grand”

      She said, “That ain’t enough”

      Then she ran upstairs to pack her bags

      While a horse-drawn taxi waited at the curb

      She passed the door that the Greek had locked

      Where a handwritten sign read, “Do not disturb”

      She knocked upon it anyway

      As the sun went down and the music did play

      On Black Diamond Bay.

      “I’ve got to talk to someone quick!”

      But the Greek said, “Go away” and kicked the chair to the floor

      He hung there from the chandelier

      She cried, “Help there’s danger near

      Please open up the door”

      Then the volcano erupted

      And the lava flowed down from the mountain high above

      The soldier and the tiny man were crouched in the corner

      Thinking of forbidden love

      But the desk clerk said “It happens every day”

      As the stars fell down and the fields burned away

      On Black Diamond Bay.

      As the island slowly sank

      The loser finally broke the bank in the gambling room

      The dealer said “It’s too late now

      You can take you money, but I don’t know how

      You’ll spend it in the tomb”

      The tiny man bit the soldier’s ear

      As the floor caved in and the boiler in the basement blew

      While she’s out on the balcony where a stranger tells her

      “My darling je vous aime beaucoup”

      She sheds a tear and then begins to pray

      As the fire burns on and the smoke drifts away

      From Black Diamond Bay.

      I was sitting home alone one night in LA

      Watching old Cronkite on the seven o’clock news

      It seems there was an earthquake that

      Left nothing but a Panama hat

      And a pair of old Greek shoes

      Didn’t seem like much was happening

      So I turned it off and went to grab another beer

      Seems like every time you turn around

      There’s another hard-luck story that you’re gonna hear

      And there’s really nothing anyone can say

      And I never did plan to go anyway

      To Black Diamond Bay.