Handful of Rain

Hey you
She's gonna get you
If you go walking
By this corner slow
Don't think she's gonna let
You leave just because you want to go

Boy you ain't seen nothin' yet
It's a long train of regret
Puppets get no second chance
Pull that string they gotta dance

Parallel addiction is
A double crucifixion
When your always out there
Feeding your head
Always channel surfing
Cause your brain
It isn't working
When you're looking at
That moment just remember

Don't look
Don't stray
Don't talk it over
No time
No way
Listen to me I'm cold sober
You're just out there
Taunting cobras

Hey you
Who's gonna warn you
When it's something
You don't want to know
Don't think it won't deform you
Twist your mind then let it go

Boy you ain't seen nothin' yet
It's a long train of regret
Puppets get no second chance
Pull that string, they gotta dance

Welcome to the prison
Let me tell ya
What you're missing
I've been coming here
For nearly a year
Out there was my corner
'Till I came in for a water
Mixed with whiskey
And a chaser of sideway glances

Don't look
Don't stray
Don't talk it over
No time
No way
Listen to me I'm cold sober
You're just out there
Taunting cobras

The night is growing dark
From somewhere deep within
It shelters like an ark
And always takes you in

And the mind goes numb
'Til it's feeling no pain
And the soul cries out
For a handful of rain

Wash your women
In your whiskey
When your future's
In the past
And you're staring
Up at heaven
From the bottom
Of a glass
And you need some insulation
From the years you've
Had and lost
And you feel the perspiration
As you're adding up the cost

And the night rolls on
Like a slow moving train
And the soul cries out
For a handful of rain

There's a land
Beyond the living
There's a land
Beyond the dead
If it's true that
God's forgiving
Of the lives that we have led
In the distance
There's a thunder
And the air is thick and warm
And the patrons
Watch with wonder
The approaching of the storm

And the night rolls on
Like a slow moving train
And the soul cries out
For a handful of rain

All right
There's an old man in the corner
And he's smoking all the time
And the smoke is drifting
Upward and it's
Twisting in my
Twisting in my
Mind
In my mind

The whiskey's getting deeper
And I use it like a moat
There's a blues man in the distance and he's
Lost inside his
Lost inside his note
His note
His note

The night is growing dark
From somewhere deep within
It shelters like an ark
That always takes you in

And the night rolls on
Like a slow moving train
And the soul cries out
For a handful of rain

He was standing all alone
Trying to find the words to say
When every prayer he ever prayed was gone
And the dreams he's never owned
Are still safely tucked away
Until tomorrow he just carries on
Carries on
Carries on
Carries on

See the devil on the streets at night
See him running in the pouring rain
See him grinning 'neath a twisted light
I'll be back again
See the people standing in a row
See them nodding like a field of grain
No one sees the sickle though
Coming 'cross the plain

And this he knows, if nothing more
That waiting in the dark like destiny
Are those who kiss the dogs of war
And there is no tomorrow, no tomorrow
Take a chance
Take a, take a chance yeah
See the devil he is so intense
See the devil go and change his name
What's the going price of innocence
It can't be the same
Is it dark when the moon is down
Is it dark with a single flame
If there's glass falling all around
I am not to blame

And this he knows, if nothing more
That waiting in the dark like destiny
Are those who kiss the dogs of war
And there is no tomorrow, no tomorrow
Take a chance
Take a, take a chance yeah
Take a chance
Take a, take a chance oh yeah

Burn the night away
Burn the night away
Burn the night...

Pictures at an exhibition
Played as he stood
In his trance
Staring at his inhibitions
All the time believing
That it now came down to nothing but this chance
Chance
Chance
Chance

I fear you
Your silence
Your blindness
See what you want to see
In darkness
One kindness
One moment
Tell me what you believe

I believe in nothing
Never really had to
In regards to your life
Rumors that are not true
Who's defending evil
Surely never I
Who would be the witness
Should you chance to die

Father can you hear me
This is not how it was meant to be
I am safe and so are you
As for the other's destiny

Father can you hear me
This is not how it was meant to be
I am safe and so are you
As for the other's destiny

I believe that situations
All depend on circumstance

Look away
Look away
Pictures at an exhibition
Played as he stood
In his trance
Staring at his inhabitions
All the time believing
That it now came down to
Nothing but this chance

He never closed his eyes
Or so we theorized
But we were young and bold
And he was mostly old
And his time nearly done

He came back from a war
On some forgotten shore
And sat and watched
The world
And never said a word
And so I asked for one

Watching waiting
Old man tell me what have we become
Anticipating
All the hating that was yet undone
He turned around and stared into the sun

He fought for things so clear
And never thought he’d fear
A brother or his child
Or killing having style
Watch the colors run

Watching waiting
Old man tell me what have we become, oh yeah
Anticipating
All the hating that was yet undone
He turned around and stared into the sun

And now he only hears
And his eyes they only tear
So tread most carefully
For he’s still listening
Watch the colors run

Watching waiting
Old man tell me what have we become, oh yeah yeah
Anticipating
All the hating that was yet undone
He turned around and stared into the sun

In the dark and bleeding
With the shadows seething
There he stands alone

Fools and faith conspire
Questions of desire
That they never owned

Kings without their armor
Men without their honor
Spit out desecration
Pieces of a nation
Buried in the ground
Screams without a sound
Burn the castle down

In the end the children cried
That the jackal surely lied
When he said please listen all
Do not look behind these walls

Coffins drowned in roses
And the war he chose is
Fought inside the mind
Death becomes compelling
When the soul’s for selling
And the world is blind

In the maze he wanders
Looks about and ponders
shadows mock and taunt him
And the ghosts that haunt him
Chain him to the ground
Screams without a sound
Burn the castle down

In the end the children cried
That the jackal surely lied
When he said please listen all
Do not look behind these walls

And does the pendulum toll
Against the side of the soul
When he feels the final moment is near
Do you rage ‘gainst the dark
Try to re-write the part
Turn around and face what you fear
What you fear

He’s seen it all before
Close your eyes and close the door
And the dreams that nights embrace
Slowly leave without a trace

There in the dark
There's a child and she's waiting
Lost in the maze of a fait accompli
Is it a crime to be just hesitating
While we're pretending that we never see

On a TV mounted on the wall
From this distance I can see it all
And I've been out here watching you
Watching you fall

Is there a trick to the art of not feeling
Safe in our world while another's child bleeds
Praying that God won't demand a redealing
Of cards we have held
And pretend you don't need
Don't need

On a TV mounted on the wall
From this distance I can see it all
And I've been out here watching you
Watching you fall

Better not think about it
Anytime we'll start to doubt it
Christ has risen
Keep him hidden
God forbid he sees

It's not that we lack the vision
Only just a quick decision
Who will blame us, rules restrain us
It's all in history

So close my eyes and pretend I am sleeping
Avoiding the chance
That you'll visit my dreams

On a TV mounted on the wall
From this distance I can see it all
And I've been out here watching you
Watching you, watching you, watching you
Watching you fall yeah yeah

Cheshire cat
Done rip your soul
Don't turn your back
Don't turn your back

Car rolls by
Move real slow
Fade it to black
Fade it to black

But nothing's going on
Nothing's going on

Twisted nerves
On shifting feet
Taking up slack, Taking up slack
Gone too far
Can't retreat
Cover your tracks, Cover your tracks

Nothing's going on

She's no queen of hearts
But she's good to me
Bring her coffin roses
Brush her thorns and
Let it bleed
Just a hardcore dancer
Puppet on a string
One crippled romancer
Strung so tight
Gotta watch her swing

Nothing's going on

So would you tell me now
Are life and death a symmetry
Balanced on scales, either side chosen
And could these moments balance out against eternity
Promise inferred, words never spoken

My life is burning
Could you read by the light
Letters I've written, never to follow
Poets and madmen all defy reason
Still in my mind I know
I want to live my life with you
Dying hard
Play the whole hand 'til it's through
Dying hard, Dying hard
Dying hard, Dying hard

And in your arctic night
You contemplate eternity
Walking on water
Frozen in silence
And in that moment would you
Turn around and turn to me
Laughing away night's darker tyrants

My life is burning
Could you read by the light
Letters I've written, never to follow
Poets and madmen all defy reason
Still in my mind I know
I want to live my life with you
Dying hard
Play the whole hand 'til it's through
Dying hard, Dying hard
Dying hard, Dying hard

Some nights I spend alone inside my head
But it's better than losing it
And if you want to turn it all around
It's your life you're choosing it
I want to live my life with you
Dying hard
Play the whole hand 'til it's through
Dying hard, Dying hard
Dying hard, Dying hard

You were never one for waiting
Still I always thought you'd wait for me
And have you from your dreams awakened
And from where you are what do you see
Which of us is now in exile
Which in need of amnesty
Are you now but an illusion
In my mind alone you breathe

You believed in things that I will never know
You were out there drowning
But it never showed
'Til inside a rainswept night you just let go

You've thrown it all away
And now we'll never see the ending to the play
The grand design, the final line
And what was meant to be
In the dark a distant runner
Now has disappeared into the night
Leaving us to stand and wonder
Staring from this end into your life

You believed in things that I will never know
You were out there drowning
But it never showed
'Til inside a rainswept night you just let go

You've thrown it all away
And now we'll never see the ending to the play
The grand design, the final line
And what was meant to be

And if this is all illusion
Nothing more than pure delusion
Clinging to a fading fantasy
Like Icarus who heeds the calling
Of a sun but now is falling
As the feathers of his life fall free
Can you see

Tomorrow and after
You tell me what am I to do
I stand here believing
That in the dark there is a clue

Perhaps inside this midnight sky
Perhaps tomorrow's newborn eyes
Or could it be, we'll never know
And after all this was the show

What am I to do
Gotta get back, gotta get back,
Gotta get back
What am I to do
Gotta get back, gotta get back,
Gotta get back
What am I to do

Standing on a dream isn't what it seems
Could we then reclaim a dream refused
Knowing what we know could we let it go
Realizing that all the years are used

Tomorrow and after
You tell me what am I to do
I stand here believing
That in the dark there is a clue
I am the way, I am the light
I am the dark inside the night
I hear your hopes, I feel your dreams
And in the dark I hear your screams
Tomorrow and after
You tell me what am I to do
I stand here believing
That in the dark there is a clue