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.