Bedlam

[Verse 1]
I've got this phosphorescent portrait of gentle Jesus, meek and mild
I've got this harlot that I'm stuck with carrying another man's child
The solitary star announcing vacancy burnt out as we arrived
They'd throw us back across the border if they knew that we survived
And they were surprised to see us so they greeted us with palms
They asked for ammunition, acts of contrition and small alms
And I might recite a small prayer if I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame and found myself in bedlam
I wish that I could take something for drowning out the noise
Wailing echoes down the corridors

[Verse 2]
I got this imaginary radio and I'm punching up the dial
I got the A.C. trained on the T.V. so it won't blow up in my eye
And everything I thought fanciful and mocked as too extreme
Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams
And I'm practicing my likeness of St. Francis of Assisi
For if I hold my hand outstretched, a little bird comes to me
And I might recite a small prayer if I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame and found myself in bedlam
Escaping from the fingers that were stretching through the bars
Wailing echoes down the corridors
(Bedlam)

[Bridge]
The player piano picks out "Life Goes On"
The ring tone rang out "Jerusalem"
Into the pit of sadness where the wretched plunge
We've buried all the innocents, we must bury revenge

[Verse 3]
They've got this scared and decorated girl strapped to the steel trunk of a Mustang
They drove her down a cypress grove where traitors hang and stars still spangle
They dangled flags and other rags along a colored thread of twine
They dragged that bruised and purple heart along the road to Palestine
Someone went off muttering, he mentioned thirty pieces
Easter saw a slaughtering, each wrapped in bloodstained fleeces
My thoughts returned to vengeance but I put up no resistance
Though it seemed a long way from my home, it really was no distance
And I might recite a small prayer if I ever said them
I lay down on an iron frame and found myself in bedlam
Bowing like an actor acknowledging applause
Playing the Crusader who was conquering the Moors
And he knew the consequences but he won't accept the cause
Wailing echoes down the corridors
Bedlam
Bedlam