Heart of the Continent

Lyrics

A north wind sinks the fence around a lot full of debris Near the corner of Memorial and me Where resurrected brick and drywall leap back into place There's a terrified reflection of my face All alone at the gleaming knife display in the Army Surplus Sales As the dusk descends and my inspiration fails And ghosts fill discount parkas, sleeping bags Peer at me from the crumpled dark Inky bruises punched into the sky by bolts of light And then leak across the body of tonight While rain and thunder drop and roll then stop short of a storm Leave the air stuck with this waiting to be born As I stand before an unresponsive automatic door Just another door that won't open for me anymore The exit red gets brighter, then blinks off Presses me into the crumpled dark There's a billboard by the highway But no sign to show you when you go away And our demolitions punctuate All we mean to save then leave too late So I'll make my shaky exclamation mark With a hand full of The crumpled dark