Bedlam

I've got this phosphorescent portrait

Of gentle Jesus meek and mild

I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with

Carrying another man's child

The solitary star announcing

Vacancy burnt out as we arrived

They'd 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

And I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

I lay down on an iron frame

And found myself in bedlam

I wish that I could take something

For drowning out the noise

Wailing echoes down the corridors

I've got this imaginary radio

And I'm punching up the dial

I've got the AC trained on the TV

So it won't blow up in my eye

There a thing that I thought fanciful

And mocked as too extreme

Must be family entertainment here

In the strange land of my dreams

And I'm practicing my likeness

Of St. Francis of Assisi

For if I hold my hand outstretched

A little bird comes to me

And I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

I lay down on an iron frame

And found myself in bedlam

Escaping from the fingers

That were stretching through the bars

Wailing echoes down the corridors

The player piano picks out 'Life Goes On'

The ring tone rang out 'Jerusalem'

Into this pit of sadness

Where the rank of wretched plunge

We've buried all the innocents

Now we must bury revenge

They've 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 our home

It really was no distance

And I might recite a small prayer

If I ever said them

I lay down on an iron frame

And found myself in bedlam

Bowing like an actor

Acknowledging applause

Playing the crusader

Who was conquering the Moors

And he knew the consequences

But he won't accept the cause

Wailing echoes down the corridors