Malvina
Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems
The Soul of an Onion
Notes: words and music
by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1965 Schroder Music Company, renewed 1993.
If you want to find the soul of an onion,
You peel and you peel and you never find the core,
You try and you try and you cry and you cry
And you peel off layer after layer,
And there is your onion,
Lying on the floor, on the floor.
If you want to find the soul of a man, of a man,
You peel and you peel thro the flesh and the clay,
What he is to his pal,
What he means to his kin,
What he says, what he does every day.
And you peel and you peel,
And you're left with empty hands
'Cause the man has all blown away, blown away.
If you want to find the soul of an onion,
You peel and you peel and you never find the core,
You try and you try and you cry and you cry
And you peel off layer after layer,
And there is your onion,
Lying on the floor, on the floor.