once I was out walking late in the night
maybe I was dreaming when I saw a sight
a bolt of lightning streaked across the hazy sky
I saw distant tower standing up so high
blacker than a shadow long before the dawn
lit up for an instant and then it was gone
this is the feeling, it feels just like the end
see it flash across the face of my old friend
no one talks about it but it wont be denied
sooner or later your rage must be tried
police and angry dogs may tear you apart
but there is greater danger inside your own heart

then I was a sailor way out on the brine
and my rusty vessel a ford econoline
swinging in the hammock or lying on the deck
always further distant in the aging wreck
well living is a triumph when hazards are so nigh
yet each night I layed me down and heaved a heavy sigh
in the absence of the grinding that I couldn’t face
there was a lack of meaning not replaced
anger and betrayal on that endless ride
turned sullen and distant then ate me up inside
I became so bitter, in bitterness I kept
all the tears of sorrow that I should have wept

When I crossed that river I saw with my own eyes
but it’s heavy lesson I didn’t realize
it seems so still and peaceful though it is so wide
but you’d never make it across to the other side
for underneath the surface hidden currents flow
no one can survive it, pulled down below
long after repression there is a bloody stain
where the ghost of violence will surely remain
to find another victim to make an enemy
to enact a vengeance from its tyranny
many heavy stones there are for you to haul
to think that you’ll be safe behind a stone wall

I came to a city when the moon was high
a homeless man was grieving and I asked him why
he said the one he followed for years now was dead
I looked to a newspaper and that’s what the headline read
with misery now shared it made me satisfied
to learn the great enemy had prematurely died
demoralized and hungry there is no point in fear
the land is full of shadows the tower’s looming near
so I asked my companion silent with a frown
why am I so cruel to with them all brought down
he said “fortune’s blind and swift, your plight does not relate
plain enough to see that it’s just yourself you hate”