Lost in the Flood

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 reeling perfection

Nuns run bold through Vatican halls

Pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception

And everybody's wrecked on Main Street

From drinkin' 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 tellin' racin' 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

Ya think that's oil?

Man, that ain't oil, that's blood"

I wonder what he was thinkin'

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 shotin' up the street

Well, 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 holdin' his leg

Screamin' something in Spanish

Still breathin' when I walked away

And someone said, "Hey man, did ya see that?

His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud"

I wonder what that dude was sayin'

Or was he just lost in the flood?

"Whoa, hey man did ya see that?

Oh, those poor cats are sure messed up"

I wonder what they were gettin' into

Or were they all just lost in the flood?

Were they lost? Oh tell me, tell me

Were they lost?