July 16, 2013

The Last Carnival (a tribute to Danny, 2009)


Moonrise, moonrise
The light that was in your eyes
Has gone away


Daybreak, daybreak
The thing in you that made me ache
Has gone to stay


We'll be riding the train without you tonight
The train that keeps on movin'
Its black smoke scorching the evening sky
A million stars shining above us like every soul livin' and dead
Has been gathered together by a God to sing a hymn over your bones


Sundown, sundown
Empty are the fairgrounds
Where are you now my handsome Billy?

July 2, 2013

Lost in the Flood (live 1975/2013)





The ragamuffin gunner is returnin' home like a hungry runaway
He walks through town all alone
He must be from the fort he hears the high school girls say
His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide
The hit and run, plead sanctuary, 'neath a holy stone they hide
They're breakin' beams and crosses with a spastic's reelin' perfection
nuns run bald through Vatican halls pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception
And everybody's wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood
Sticker smiles sweet as gunner breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud

 And I said "Hey, gunner man, that's quicksand, that's quicksand that ain't mud
Have you thrown your senses to the war or did you lose them in the flood?"