Lost
in the Flood - Bruce Springsteen
The ragamuffin
gunner is returnin' home like a hungry runaway
He walks through town all
alone
He must be from the fort he
hears the high school girls say
His countryside's burnin'
with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide
The hit and run, plead sanctuary,
`neath a holy stone they hide
They're breakin' beams and
crosses with a spastic's reelin' perfection
nuns run bald through Vatican
halls pregnant, pleadin' immaculate conception
And everybody's wrecked on
Main Street from drinking unholy blood
Sticker smiles sweet as gunner
breathes deep, his ankles caked in mud
And I said "Hey, gunner man,
that's quicksand, that's quicksand that ain't mud
Have you thrown your senses
to the war or did you lose them in the flood?"
That pure American brother,
dull-eyed and empty-faced
races Sundays in Jersey in
a Chevy stock super eight
He rides `er low on the hip,
on the side he's got Bound For Glory in red, white and blue flash paint
He leans on the hood telling
racing stories, the kids call him Jimmy The Saint
Well the blaze and noise boy,
he's gunnin' that bitch loaded to blastin' point
He rides head first into a
hurricane and disappears into a point
And there's nothin' left but
some blood where the body fell
That is, nothin' left that
you could sell
just junk all across the horizon,
a real highwayman's farewell
And he said "Hey kid, you
think that's oil? Man, that ain't oil that's blood"
I wonder what he was thinking
when he hit that storm
Or was he just lost in the
flood?
Eighth Avenue sailors in satin
shirts whisper in the air
Some storefront incarnation
of Maria, she's puttin' on me the stare
and Bronx's best apostle stands
with his hand on his own hardware
Everything stops, you hear
five, quick shots, the cops come up for air
And now the whiz-bang gang
from uptown, they're shootin' up the street
And that cat from the Bronx
starts lettin' loose
but he gets blown right off
his feet
And some kid comes blastin'
round the corner but a cop puts him right away
He lays on the street holding
his leg screaming something in Spanish
Still breathing when I walked
away
And somebody said "Hey man
did you see that? His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud"
I wonder what the dude was
sayin' or was he just lost in the flood?
Hey man, did you see that,
those poor cats are sure messed up
I wonder what they were gettin'
into, or were they just lost in the flood?