The ragamuffiin gunner is returnin' home like a hungry runaway
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He walks through town all alone
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He must be from the fort he hears the high school girls say
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His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide
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The hit and run, plead sanctuary, 'neath a holy stone they hide
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They're breakin' beams and crosses with a spastic's reelin' perfection
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nuns run bald through Vatican halls pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception
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And everybody's wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood
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Sticker smiles sweet as gunner breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud
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And I said, "Hey, gunner man, that's quicksand, that's quicksand that ain't mud
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Have you thrown your senses to the war or did you lose them in the flood ?"
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That pure American brother, dull-eyed and empty-faced
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races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock super eight
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He rides 'er low on the hip, on the side he's got Bound For Glory in red, white and blue flash paint.
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He leans on the hood telling racing stories, the kids call him Jimmy The Saint
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Well that blaze and noise boy, he's gunnin' that bitch loaded to blastin' point
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He rides head first into a hurricane and disappears into a point
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And there's nothin' left but some blood where the body fell
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That is, nothin' left that you could sell
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just junk all across the horizon, a real highwayman's farewell
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And I said "Hey kid, you think that's oil ? Man, that ain't oil that's blood."
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I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm
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or was he just lost in the flood ?
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Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts whisper in the air
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Some storefront incarnation of Maria, she's puttin' on me the stare
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and Bronx's best apostle stands with his hand on his own hardware
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Everything stops, you hear five, quick shots, the cops come up for air
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And now the whiz-bang gang from uptown, they're shootin' up the street
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And that cat from the Bronx starts lettin' loose
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but he gets blown right off his feet
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And some kid comes blastin' round the corner but a cop puts him right away
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He lays on the street holding his leg screaming something in Spanish
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still breathing when I walked away
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And somebody said, "Hey man, did you see that ? His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud."
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I wonder what the dude was sayin' or was he just lost in the flood ?
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Hey man, did you see that, those poor cats are sure messed up
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I wonder what they were gettin' into, or were they just lost in the flood ?
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Lost In The Flood
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| Bruce Springsteen |
