Night Train

Not a knife throw from here you can hear the night train passing
 That's the sound somebody makes when they're getting away
 Leaving next week's hanging jury far behind them
 Prisoner only of the choices they have made
 Night Train...
 Night Train...
 Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight
 The moon is floating somewhere out at sea
 On an island in the blur of noise and color
 Alcatraz, St. Alina, Patmos and the Chateau D'if
 Night Train...
 Night Train...
 And everyone's an island edged with sand
 A temporary refuge where somebody else can stand
 Till the sea that binds us like the forced tie of a blood oath
 Will wear it down, dissolve it, recombine it
 Anyone can die here they do it every day
 It doesn't take much effort though it goes against the grain
 And the ultimate forgetfulness of violence
 Sweeps the landscape like a headlight of a train
 Night Train...
 Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight
 Starlight shines like glass shards in dark hair
 And the mind's eye tumbles out along the steel track
 Fixing every shadow with its stare
 Night Train...
 Night Train...
 And in the absence of a vision there are nightmares
 And in the absence of compassion there is cancer
 Whose banner waves over palaces and mean streets
 And the rhythm of the night train is a mantra