[Verse 1] Ive got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus meek and mild Ive got this harlot that Im stuck with carrying another mans child The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived Theyd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived And they were surprised to see us So they greeted us with palms They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms [Chorus] I might recite a small prayer If I ever said them I lay down on an iron frame Found myself in bedlam I wish that I could take something for drowning out the noise Wailing echoes down the corridors [Verse 2] Ive got this imaginary radio, and Im punching up the dial Ive got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it wont blow up in my eye And everything that I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams Now Im practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi For if I hold my hand outstretched A little bird comes to me [Chorus] [Verse 3] The player piano picks out Life Goes On Ring tone rang out Jerusalem And in this pit of sadness Where the rank of wretched plunge Weve buried all the innocents Now we must bury revenge Theyve got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a mustang And then they drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle They dangled flags and other rags along a colored thread of twine And then they dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces Then my thoughts returned to vengeance, but I put up no resistance Though I seemed a long way from my home It really was no distance [Chorus] [Outro] Bowing like an actor acknowledging applause Playing the Crusader who was conquering the Moors And he knew the consequences, but he wont accept the cause Wailing echoes down the corridors
wailing, corridor, assisi, echo, fanciful