Behind the walls where heat lightning falls
|
On five starred gnat-faced princess
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The buffalo man shoots at the tin cats
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Turns and shouts "Children, blow your bridges"
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On death row halls where dustmen stall
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Where time's an enemy and a friend
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At night jackals crawl from the cracks in the walls
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And salvation is never spoken
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Morning sickness breaks the garrison gate
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The cavalry cries for treason
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The soldier strokes his pony and goes to shine the Captain's sword
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In this young boy's eyes lie reason
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And the sergeant bursts in and cries "I caught a prisoner, Captain,
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A prisoner, what ho !"
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The Captain looks up and says "Let her go"
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"But Captain, she patrols the light ships that patrol the sea around
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The rainbow tips, whose bagpiper wail unbroken
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She haunts the night and the dawnin' light
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On her sounds and words your cavalry chokin' "
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The Captain says "Have no fear, boys
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For what you hear
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Because danger can't be spoken "
|
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The whirlwind crackles and I hear the rustle of shackles
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From the stockade door bursts Merlin
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His eyes red, and swollen, like they've been pushed into the sun
|
His robes aflame and burnin'
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He jumps a horse, tries to get away
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But he gets caught in his eyes, tangled in his eyes
|
He falls to the ground, his neck is broken
|
His spirit rises high in the western sky
|
|
The magician lies an empty token
|
the sergeant walks over and kicks his body
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And says "Captain, he's dead - What shall we do with him ?"
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The Captain says "Hang him
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For though his live moments on this earth are well spent
|
And I can se his body is sure well bent
|
It's magic that must be broken "
|
|
Now night cradles low
|
The penniless weed plays wrath felt in the Captain's corner
|
With anvil spread wide, the Captain glides
|
Each blow to scare her, not to hurt her
|
She spits "what truth" at the Captain's boots
|
But he holds his rage suspended
|
The sergeant comes in stinkin' of soldier's gin
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And cries "Captain, the storm she blows unending"
|
Oh and the lightning cracked and the sky was hacked
|
By dagger rain it was torn
|
And the yard was charged into a raging sea
|
And the Captain ran crazily
|
For the first time in his life, in the Captain's heart
|
Fear was born
|
|
The Captain storms out on the stoop, panic strikes
|
He sees Merlin's hung body stretched by the neck
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Silhouetted on his door
|
The sergeant screams "Captain, look high, look to the sky !"
|
Some whirling, swirling emission ...
|
But the Captain falls to his knees crying silent pleas
|
'Cause he knows, he knows, and he thinks to himself
|
"A Magician..."
|
|
-----------------
|
Visitation At Fort Horn
|
| Bruce Springsteen |
