The ragamuffin gunner is returnin' home
Like a hungry runaway
He walks through town all alone
"He must be from the fort"
He hears the high school girls say
His countryside's burnin'
With wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide
The hit-and-run plead sanctuary
'Neath a holy stone they hide
They're breakin' beams and crosses
With a spastic's reelin' perfection
Nuns run bald through Vatican halls
Pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception
And everybody's wrecked on Main Street
From drinking unholy blood
Sticker smiles sweet as Gunner breathes deep
His ankles caked in mud
And I said, "Hey, gunner man, that's quicksand
That's quicksand, that ain't mud
Have you thrown your senses to the war
Or did you lose them in the flood?"
That pure American brother, dull-eyed and empty-faced
Races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock super eight
He rides 'er low on the hip
On the side he's got "Bound for Glory"
In red, white and blue flash paint
He leans on the hood telling racing stories
The kids call him Jimmy the Saint
Well, that blaze-and-noise boy
He's gunnin' that bitch loaded to blastin' point
He rides head first into a hurricane and disappears into a point
And there's nothin' left
But some blood where the body fell
That is, nothin' left that you could sell
Just junk all across the horizon
A real highwayman's farewell
And I said, "Hey kid, you think that's oil?
Man, that ain't oil, that's blood"
I wonder what he was thinking
When he hit that storm
Or was he just lost in the flood?
Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts whisper in the air
Some storefront incarnation of Maria
She's puttin' on me the stare
And Bronx's best apostle
Stands with his hand on his own hardware
Everything stops, you hear five quick shots
The cops come up for air
And now the whiz-bang gang from uptown
They're shootin' up the street
Oh, that cat from the Bronx starts lettin' loose
But he gets blown right off his feet
Oh, and some kid comes blastin' 'round the corner
But a cop puts him right away
He lays on the street holding his leg
Screaming something in Spanish
Still breathing when I walked away
And someone said, "Hey man, did you see that?
His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud"
I wonder what the dude was sayin'
Or was he just lost in the flood?
Hey man, did you see that?
Those poor cats are sure messed up
I wonder what they were gettin' into
Or were they all just lost in the flood?
---
Lost in the Flood - Bruce Springsteen
