Blackbird Raum Coal
COAL
The pillars of the world were shaking like the legs of a drunk
Hot winds ripped the hats off all the ladies all about town that day
Then they caught us ran us ragged beat us bloody put us in a dirty cage
Now we’re screaming bloody murder we are starving won’t see the ocean side again
Continents and mountain ranges boats out in the harbor,
rivers clouds and cities all aflame
the sun went out the sky went red the horses our dancing in their skins
the taste of ash and sulfur on our lips
Where is my boy, where is my son. I seem to have lost him in the crowd,
he was holding to my hand just a moment ago
I know he cannot find his way he is so small he is so lean he looks like
a scrap of paper on a branch
I am flesh and you are pale, I am sleeping you are dead,
we’re all playing cards as the ship goes down
We’re living as if we are not, hanging from a precipice,
shuddering and lurching off the edge
But someday this will all be gone, as fast a match can be struck,
take warning for the veil is very thin
The signs aren’t difficult to read: we tread so heavy on the ground
and one day the ground it may give way.
I see you gilded gentlemen, I wish I’d set a torch to you while I still
had the freedom of my legs. I do not trust you with my life,
I do not trust you with my past I do not trust your hands upon the world.
But now I’m sunken in the ground, all my strength to move is gone and
screaming is the last recourse that I have, you’ve left us with a barren
earth, we know we are the aching land,
a scorching waste with all the life of coal.
