Red Right Hand

Take a little walk to the edge of town

Go across the tracks,

Where the viaduct looms, like a bird of doom,

As it shifts and cracks.

Where secrets lie in the border fires,

In the humming wires.

Hey, man, you know you're never coming back,

Past the square, past the bridge, past the mills, past the stacks,

On a gathering storm comes a tall handsome man

In a dusty black coat with a red right hand.

He'll wrap you in his arms, tell you that you've been a good boy,

He'll rekindle all the dreams it took you a lifetime to destroy,

He'll reach deep into the hole, heal your shrinking soul...

Hey buddy, you know you're never coming back, -

He's a god, he's a man, he's a ghost, he's a guru.

They're whispering his name through this disappearing land,

But hidden in his coat is a red right hand.

You ain't got no money? He'll get you some.

You ain't got no car? He'll get you one.

You ain't got no self-respect,

you feel like an insect

Well don't you worry buddy,

cause here he comes

Through the ghettos and the barrio

and the bowery and the slum

A shadow is cast wherever he stands

Stacks of green paper in his

red right hand.