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Words

Long ago and far away

I was hitchhiking on a clear blue day

The cats-eyes broke in my feet, my tongue

Was dry as the hills where Jesus hung

And I lay

And wondered if he died for me

On a highway straighter than the barrel of eternity

 

My focus panned on the shattered stones

The shifting sand in the lizard bones

The withered skin on my hand was lined

Like a map of the land I’d left behind

Alone

A drifter and a Pharisee

On a highway straighter than the barrel of eternity

 

I’d long lost count to name the days

When a long black car came outa the haze

The door swung open

And the driver called

My name in a voice like a mama doll

And I knew

No matter what the game would be

This man’s staring down the barrel of eternity

Yeah this man’s staring down the barrel of eternity

 

He said I’m so tired, brother

And I’ve travelled such a long long way

And I’m running shy of water

Won’t you ride with me the highway on this day

 

I said I know you, I know you well

People talk, and I heard them tell

How you ate up the seed corn

All this side of the Sambatyon River

How the cattle died

How the pain of your fever

Spread out across the moon

Like a thunderhead

Like a lost Will,

A hole in the law,

Split the stone of the cathedral floor

I know the danger

But cannot close my heart

As a man of the Book, on those who’ve

Lost the battle

I’m hookin’ my thumb

Round a well-sucked bottle of Inner Circle Rum

And I’m handin’ it over

He’s whackin’ it down

His old man’s adam’s apple’s jumpin’ around

Kickin’ at a rope-burn under his chin

And I’m lookin at the sky

Like a sheeta hot tin

And I’m feeling so sick in the head

And I fall to one knee,

Then another

And all that I can see

Is highway straighter than the barrel of eternity

A highway straighter than the barrel of eternity

 

And in a dream I saw a woman

She was burying a thing in the sand

There are tales among these hills she whispered

Far beyond Jerusalem’s command

 

Long ago, and far away

I opened my eyes and attempted to pray

I opened my eyes on a land as frozen

Cold as the hole where Jesus rose

And I lay and wondered if he died for me

On a highway straighter than the barrel of eternity

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