NO DEVIL

Were you there when the money came tumbling down
like the tower of Babel?
Did you wade into battle with your fist in the air?
When your neighborhood crumbled did you even care?

Or were you waiting on holy hands to bear you to the sky -
nothing left but to turn your back when the fire burns so goddam high?
If you're running out the clock with a conscience pure as snow
What if there's a tomorrow?

I don’t need no devil to tell me
what I should be tempted by.
Don’t need no heaven or hell
to sell me a season of penance for asking why.
My, my, my…

Were you there after the TVs all went grey -
like they had nothing to say?
Did you wake up then or are you sleeping still?
Are you filtering all you feel through a pill?
Are you hunting witches, raping riches
Digging ditches to bury your head?
Is that your claw that clutches, takes what it touches?
Or is that just the cruel world such as it is?

Or were you waiting on holy hands to bear you to the sky -
nothing left but to turn your back when the fire burns so goddam high?
If you're running out the clock with a conscience pure as snow
What if there's a tomorrow?

I don’t need no devil to tell me
what I should be tempted by.
Don’t need no heaven or hell
to sell me a season of penance for asking why.

Sure we dream of the end sometimes -
hoary echo of a trumpet keening somewhere in the distance.
To know, to lay this burden down at last
To wake up
To wake up
To wake up
To wake up
To wake up I should
To wake up be a
To wake up good little boy
To wake up go back to sleep