come on boys, we’ll see where this road gives up
blacktop and gasoline, it won’t be enough
but I keep shifting into neutral while the river’s racing by
yea I’m sitting in the chamber, locked and loaded, let me fly

you won’t forget the quakes, they get in your bones
and I have seen the flames taking cities whole
and all my kings and queens and aces now discarded to the fire
every dollar, every boardwalk, every ticket on the line

take all these tokens, I don’t need them now
lay every trophy down in the ground

now I have heard a sound in my waking dreams
someone’s father was calling out, “here come 819”
was it the hammer through the floorboards or the rumble of the train
or the thunder of the engine through the silence of a name

and all these horses, they’re rolling on
tell all the broken, we’re going home

was it the hammer through the floorboards or the rumble of the train
or the thunder of the engine through the silence of a name

I hear the buzzing of cicadas as the evening starts to fade
the crumbling concrete of empires, they won’t even last the day

and every long forgotten story finds the breath of life again
all the hymns below the churchyard find again the tongues of men

and every tear and every stain, every sin be washed away
every grave will be abandoned, even death will pass away