Peace Train

Now I've been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun

Oh I've been smiling lately
Dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be
Some day it's going to come

'Cause out on the edge of darkness
There rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
Come take me home again

Now I've been smiling lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
oh ah ee ah oh ah
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller
Everyone jump on the peace train
oh ah ee ah oh ah
Come on now peace train

Get your bags together
Go bring your good friends too
'Cause it's getting nearer
It soon will be with you

Now come and join the living
It's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer
Soon it will all be true

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
oh ah ee ah oh ah
Come on now peace train, peace train

Now I've been crying lately
Thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating?
Why can't we live in bliss?

'Cause out on the edge of darkness
There rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country
Come take me home again

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
oh ah ee ah oh ah
Come on now the peace train
Yes peace train holy roller
Everyone jump on the peace train
oh ah ee ah oh ah
Come on, come on, come on
Yes come on peace train
Yes it's the peace train
Oh ah ee ah oh ah
Come on now peace train
Oh peace train

Photograph

I found this photograph
underneath the broken picture glass
Tender face of black and white
Beautiful, a haunting sight
Looked into an angel's smile
captivated all the while
From the hair and clothes she wore
I'd place her in between the wars

Was she willing when she sat
and posed the pretty photograph?
Save her flowering and fair
the days to come, the days to share
A big smile for the camera
how did she know?
the moment could be lost forever
forever more

I found this photograph
stashed between the old joist walls
in a place where time is lost
lost behind, where all things fall
Broken books and calendars
letters script in careful hand
music too, a standard tune by
some forgotten big brass band

From the threshhold what's to see
of our brave new century?
The television's just a dream
the radio, the silver screen
A big smile for the camera
how did she know?
the moment could be lost forever
forever more

Was her childhood filled with rhymes
stolen hooks, impassioned crimes?
Was she innocent or blind
to the cruelty of her time?
Was she fearful in her day
was she hopeful, did she pray?
Were there skeletons inside
family secrets, sworn to hide?
Did she feel the heat that stirs
the fall from grace of wayward girls?
Was she tempted to pretend
the love and laughter, 'til the end?

Pit Viper

In the cruel garrison of affection If
worth of lore is true You know the face of a temptress Pit Viper A
witch or enchantress Pit Viper With the malign venom of conceit She
tries Civil men Conceal fear Misgivings When night entreats them A
greater chill sustains Stains her Darkness Shall not inhibit death
blow Know this skin does not restrict her Tear and shed the coil Fall
of garland leaves Below the soil

Planned Obsolescene

Science Is truth for life Watch
religion fall obsolete Science Will be truth for life Technology as
nature Science Truth for life In fortran tongue the Answer With wealth
and prominence Man so near perfection Possession It's an absence of
interim Secure no demurer Defense against divine Defense against his
true Image Human conflict number five Discovery Dissolved all illusion
Mystery Destroyed with conclusion And illusion never restored Any
modern man can see That religion is Obsolete Piety Obsolete Ritual
Obsolete Martyrdom Obsolete Prophetic vision Obsolete Mysticism
Obsolete Commitment Obsolete Sacrament Obsolete Revelation Obsolete

Please Forgive Us

Mercy, mercy," why didn't we hear it? "Mercy, mercy," why did we read
it
buried on the last page of our morning papers? The plan was drafted,
drafted in secret. Gunboats met the red tide, driven to the rum trade
for the army that they created. But the bullets were bought by us, it
was
dollars that paid them.
Please forgive us, we don't know what was done in our name. There'll
be
more trials like this in mercenary heydays. When they're so apt to
wrap
themselves up in the stripes and stars and find that they are able to
call
themselves heroes and to justify murder by their fighters for freedom.
Please forgive us, we don't know what was done. Please forgive us, we
didn't know. Could you ever forgive us? I don't know how you could. I
know
this is no consolation. Please forgive us, we didn't know. Could you
ever
believe that we didn't know? Please forgive us, we didn't know. I
wouldn't
blame you if you never could, and you never will

Poison In The Well

Tell me what's gone wrong. I tilt my head there, under the faucet, but
when
I turn it on -- dry as paper. Call the neighbors. Who's to blame for
what's
going on? In the dark without a clue I'm just the same as you.
O, they tell us there's poison in the well, that someone's been a bit
untidy
and there's been a small spill. Not a lot, no, just a drop. But there
you are
mistaken, you know you are. I wonder just how long they knew our well
was
poisoned but they let us just drink on.
O, they tell us there's poison in the well, that someone's been a bit
untidy
and there's been a small spill. All that it amounts to is a tear in a
salted
sea. Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a
week. But
the week is over and now it's grown into years since I was told that I
should
be calm, there's nothing to fear here. But I drank that water for
years, my
wife and my children.
Tell me, where to now, if your fight for a bearable life can be fought
and
lost in you backyard? O, don't tell us there's poison in the well,
that
someone's been a bit untidy, that there's been a small spill. All that
it
amounts to is a tear in a salted sea. Someone's been a bit untidy,
they'll
have it cleaned up in a week.

Poor De Chiciro

POOR DE CHICIRO (Lombardo/Merchant) Oh my dear friend My dear friend
Giorgio How has this time Breton Discouraged your liaison with the Eye
styled metaphysical Incongruous scenarios Dauntly jaunt about through
nostalgic despair Within childlike renderings Of a nightmarish recall
"All my images Fragments I've shored upon my ruins Pictor classicus
sum I am pure" Step solemn with the Air of reluctant manes As rod and
hoop shadow children Scatter through a henna arcade Figures indentured
to a windless landscape Enduring silence and flame Da Da da No loyalty
to the nonsensical Scorned their nihilist pageantry

Rainy Day

On bended kneeI've looked through every window then.
Touched the bottom, the night a sleepless day instead
A day when love came,came easy like what's lost now found.
Beneath a blinding light that would surround.
We were without, in doubt
We were about saving for a rainy day.
I crashed through mirrors,
I crashed through floors of laughter then.
In a blind scene, no ties would moor us to this room.
A day when love came, came easy like what's lost now found.
And you would save me, and I held you like you were my child.
If I were you, defiant you, alone upon a troubled way.
I would send my heart to you
To save it for a rainy day

Reds In My Bed

There's a fat man who offers a change of scene
Says he'll guarantee my sheet will be clean
When I get on the outside
But who can you trust when the walls have ears
I'm for takin' a chance, like a drownin' man
I'm going under

I've got reds in my bed
I'm not easily led to the slaughter
And while the cold war exists
I'll stay warm with the commisar's daughter

We could meet at the zoo where the tiger roams
In a prison of steel
He reminds me so much of the way I feel
And we know that we're both in the danger zone
Where the eyes of the world
Full of shutters and bugs are upon us now

I've got reds in my bed
I get blues looking out of my window
And we're never alone, there's a tap on the phone
And my pillow

Let me go home
(There's a girl in a distant land)
Let me go home
(Who's nothing more than a memory)
She don't know that I'm gonna be free
Let me go home
(You're a land full of misery)
Let me go home
(You're a cruel and a faceless race)
I don't like your philosophy
I don't like your philosophy

The connections are made and the time is right
So my body is walled in the shell of a car
in the dead of night
And I laugh through the pain and the agony
As they cut me away to be born again
back to humanity

You've got reds in your bed
There's a man lookin' over your shoulder
But don't you give him your mind
It's too late when you find that it's over
You!

Let me go home
(You're a land full of misery)
Let me go home
(You're nothing more than a memory)
I don't like your philosophy
Let me go home
(You're a cruel and a faceless race)
Let me go home
(You're nothing more than a memory)
I don't like your philosophy

Sally Ann

a woman of beauty
a woman of pain
in france or jakarta
her shadow's the same

Chorus:
you go home with sally ann
you go home with sally ann
you go home

a woman of kindness
with bracelets of jade
in china or japan
her choices are made

Chorus

a woman of chances
no family or friends
in argentina
she knows only men

Chorus

a woman of color
debts to be paid
in trenton or detroit
she lives by the blade