Get Up Jonah

(I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers
It didn't take long, I don't know much about Turkish drummers
But it made me think of Germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes
Who'd been in the Afghan secret police
Who made the observation that it's hard to live
Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec
Who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang
And it occurred to me I was thinking about all this stuff
To keep from thinking about something else
Isn't that just what secret police are all about?)

Somebody stands in a window
Watches the river roll
Trains rumble in the foreground
With the weight of approaching dawn

Flames from the refinery
Rise broken, red and riveting
And the high vault of heaven
Looks far away and cold

There's howling in the factory yard
There's pounding in my head
I'm swollen up with unshed tears
Bloated like the dead

Blood and ashes, time burning
On the skyline dark against the stars
A solitary horseman, waiting

Lashed to the wheel
Whipping into the storm
Get up, Jonah
It's your time to be born