The carnival is closed for the winter   The gates are full of nails   All my belongings' in the camper truck   In front of some Hell Hole Motel      The rides are wrapped in canvass   There's a smell of snow in the air   They're taking apart the ferris wheel   Like a game of solitaire      Love oh, love, I will be home   When the trees are bare and brown   Without you I'm just a carnival bum   Whose life goes 'round and 'round   Whose life goes 'round and 'round      When little Maggie lost big Earle   Man, that was about it for her   She was MIA in the Day to Day   The next 3 years were a blur      Well, I left home when Maggie checked out   An' I been a snowbird ever since   I work the circuit in the summertime   Come winter, I jump the fence      Love oh, love, I will be home   When the trees are bare and brown   Without you I'm just a carnival bum   Whose life goes 'round and 'round   Whose life goes 'round and 'round      The darkness comes with the headlights   It gives me a little relief   I feel a little more like a leaf in the wind   And a little bit less like a thief      Sometimes I feel I stole life itself   I'm lucky as a man can be   The carnival is closed for the winter   But it don't matter to me      Love oh, love, I will be home   When the trees are bare and brown   Without you I'm just a carnival bum   Whose life goes 'round and 'round   Whose life goes 'round and 'round      Love oh, love, I will be home   When the trees are bare and brown   Without you I'm just a carnival bum   Whose life goes 'round and 'round   Whose life goes 'round and 'round      Love oh, love, I will be home   Love oh, love, I will be home   Love oh, love, I will be home