Apparition No. 12

Hey now my red clouds're rolling in

To catalogue and number every stone cold dream

And I've seen Sal thumbing his way up to the stars

I've seen angels in the shooting galleries and heroes in the bars

I've seen a death warrant out on the moon

I saw what happened when the prophet spoke too soon

And I heard the radio sneeze into the evening

And all the bat-squeak singers selling fake hope to the sleeping

I've seen the cover up of cold hard facts

And they're burning acid holes in the magazine racks

And I saw Jenny have a baby in the street

Where they're playing blind mans bluff between the dying and the concrete

I've seen a paper corpse holing up a doorway

I heard the lonely voices singing "yeah, I did it your way"

And I held the future up to a looking glass

It bears a striking resemblance to the embers of the past

I've seen the chorus-girls, the ribbons and the rot

Seen electoral debates on the steel-rim of a whiskey shot

And I caught the glimmer in a hurricane's eye

I've seen these AK-47s with their noses to the sky

And I smelled the ghosts of the ashes and the orchids

I've got promises tattooed to the insides of my eyelids

And I'll be watching when the Richter reaches 10

I bled by these weapons, babe, and now I'm one of them