Bedlam

I've got this phosphorescent portrait

Of gentle Jesus meek and mild

I've got this harlot that

I'm stuck with carrying

Another man's child

The solitary star announcing

Vacancy burnt out as we arrived

They'd throw us back

Across the border

If they knew that we survived

And they were surprised to see us

So they greeted us with palms

They asked for ammunition

Acts of contrition and small alms

And I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

I lay down on an iron frame

Found myself in bedlam

I wish that I could take something

For drowning out the noise

Wailing echoes down the corridors

I've got this imaginary radio

And I'm punching up the dial

I've got the AC trained on the TV

So it won't blow up in my eye

Every thing that

I thought fanciful and

Mocked as too extreme

Must be family entertainment here

In the strange land of my dreams

Now I'm practicing my

Likeness of St Francis of Assisi

If I hold my hand outstretched

A little bird comes to me

I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

I lay down on an iron frame

Found myself in bedlam

Escaping from the fingers

That were stretching

Through the bars

Wailing echoes

Down the corridors

The player piano

Picks out Life Goes On

The ring tone rang out Jerusalem

In this pit of sadness

Where the wretched plunge

We've buried all the innocents

Must bury revenge

They've got this scared and

Decorated girl strapped

To the steel trunk of a mustang

They drove

Her down a cypress grove

Where traitors hang

And stars still spangle

They dangled flags and

Other rags along a coloured

Thread of twine

They dragged

That bruised and purple heart

Along the road to Palestine

Someone went off muttering

He mentioned thirty pieces

Easter saw a slaughtering

Each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces

My thoughts returned

To vengeance

But I put up no resistance

Though I seemed

A long way from my home

It really was no distance

And I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

I lay down on an iron frame

Found myself in bedlam

Bowing like an actor

Acknowledging applause

Playing the Crusader

Who was conquering the Moors

And he knew the consequences

But he won't accept the cause

Wailing echoes down the corridors

Bedlam Bedlam