Thursday, December 8, 2011

A Stranger's Prayer (The Bridge)

Man standing on a wooden bridge, 
    trying to remember
The country where he was born
He's got on boots and a hat
It's his hands that are worn
The creek's not that deep
The night's way too warm
Lightning in the distance, beyond the hills
Flashing faint promise of a storm
His teeth are gold
And his face is old
Older than his years
His story stays untold
He's been neither hero nor bold
Only brave enough to make it to here


Now I know the river don't feel
None of the tears I cried
I know the sky don't hear
All of the times I lie
And the sea don't know
Which boats float on the rising tide
I know heaven don't care
If I cross to the other side




I can almost remember the times
When I stood near there
Darker days, almost gone
When my life I would forswear
Weighed down by burdens solely mine
My back could no longer bear
Haunted by tones, a family curse
Cats and cobwebs on the stairs
Whispering in the darkness
Footsteps, and empty chairs
I approached the dead though they tried to tell me
The unforgivable sin is despair
Almost gone, something held me
Could have been a stranger's prayer


Now I know the river don't feel
None of the tears I cried
I know the sky don't hear
All of the times I lie
And the sea don't know
Which boats float on the rising tide
Why should heaven care
If I cross to the other side?




All the saints and all the world watch us
Todos los santos y todo el mundo nos cuida
Maybe one time he saw me there
Uno tiempo quizo el vistime ahi
When this bridge returns to ashes
Cuando este puente se transforme a las cenizas
And ths life to dust
Y este vida a el pulvo
I'll remember you
Yo recordare usted
With a stranger's prayer
Con un oracion de un desconocido
God bless you for your stranger's prayer
Dios bendecira usted por su oracion de un desconocido


Now I know the river don't feel
None of the tears I cried
I know the sky don't hear
All of the times I lie
And the sea don't know
Which boats float on the rising tide
Maybe heaven don't care
If I cross to the other side

Bullethole Road

Truck blazing upside down in a ditch  
      at midnight
We were the first ones there
Whiskey smelling in the chill night air
A lot of his stuff had been thrown clear
But the driver was gone
Up the mountain with the porcupine 
      and bear
Bags and keys in the brush, but no
     blood on the trail
His papers said he lived on
    Bullethole Road




It took awhile for the cops to come
And when he did, he waved his arms around
And said, If you didn't see it happen
You got no business here
Go on, get going, he hollered
Get on out of here
So we did as we were told
His papers said he lived on Bullethole Road


Don't know what hit him
If he'd been riding a train full of false love
Or if he'd been slain in his soul
And here I am riding with strangers
Down avenues I don't know
Riding with strangers 
And one of them says
Let's go down to Bullethole Road