Get Up Jonah

(I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers
 It didn't take long - I don't know much about Turkish drummers -
 But it made me think of Germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes
 Who'd been in the Afghan secret police
 Who made the observation
 That it's hard
 To live
 Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang - and it occurred to me I was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else... Isn't that just what secret police are all about?)
 Somebody stands in a window
 Watches the river roll
 Trains rumble in the foreground
 With the weight of approaching dawn
 Flames from the refinery
 Rise broken, red and riveting
 And the high vault of heaven
 Looks far away and cold
 There's howling in the factory yard
 There's pounding in my head
 I'm swollen up with unshed tears
 Bloated like the dead...
 (Instrumental break)
 Blood and ashes - time burning
 On the skyline dark against the stars
 A solitary horseman - waiting
 Lashed to the wheel
 Whipping into the storm
 Get up, Jonah
 It's your time to be born