Can't Ignore The Train

[ music: John Lombardo/lyric: Natalie Merchant ]



Steep is the water tower
painted off blue to match the sky

can't ignore the train

night walks in the valley silent
you could swear the earth just moved

can't ignore the train

dust to be kicked up
in the crack faced
idle sinister town
screen door to the rail station
devil in her shoe

ran along side the wasted tracks
hem pins darted her calves

can't ignore the train

one spoiled girl with the tidiest apology
some how wedged inside her throat

can't ignore the train

patience their virtue
but I never could abide by that
dungeon life with electric light
a clean towel and a basin
mantle figures mind their place
laughs where they belong

through adventure we are not adventuresome

rage to share with a wardrobe mirror
in a room so beige and cold

can't ignore the train

window days saw the children pick their
street games on thirty afternoons

Molly the boys are
starting in the rhymic again
teasing more and more....

the second daughter
how she fell
young locked in Some Folk's Prison
made to dwell
til they're braiding
her grey hair

sitting in the wishing chair
sitting in the wishing chair
sitting in the wishing chair