WAKE Me Up

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 And they asked for ammunition acts of contrition and small alms Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up With a slap or a kiss Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up There must be something better than this I’ve got this imaginary radio and I‘m punching up the dial I’ve got the AC trained on the TV so it won’t blow up in my eye And everything that I thought fanciful or mocked as too extreme Must be family entertainment here in the strange land of my dreams And I’m practising my likeness of St Francis of Assisi And 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 Stepping on the fingers that were stretching through the bars Wailing echoes down the corridors Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up With a slap or a kiss Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up There must be something better than this 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 coloured 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 I seemed a long way from my home It really was no distance Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up With a slap or a kiss Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up There must be something better than this And the player piano picks out Life Goes On The Ringtone rang out Jerusalem Into the pit of sadness Where the wretched plunge We’ve buried all the Innocents We must bury revenge Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up There must be something better than this There must be something better than this There must be something better than this In the name of the Father and the Son In the name of Gasoline and a Gun Wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up wake me up