The New Wild West

(Album: This Way - 2001)

You see the ghosts of the buffalo
Moving both fierce and slow
Like glittering prophesies
On the edge of the horizon

As you drive glittering highways
And beaten-up by-ways
That straddle and girdle
A great and many-faced nation

You see the lambs in the ghettos
Who worship their Gepettos
Believing in, though never seeing
The strings they think bind them

So you write to our congressmen
With bleeding pens of the sorrow within
And in return they just send
Tickets to the latest Tom Hanks' show

Welcome to the new Wild West
Each man for himself
Civilized steeples
And lonely people
Welcome to the new Wild West

There are so many factions
And cue-card reactions
It's hard to keep clear
The possibilities here
'Cause there's no force to unite them

Privilege has ruled for thousands of years
Wars have been fought with Bibles and tears
Yet liberation can't deny the temptation
Soon becomes the oppressor

Show me a leader who's fit to lead
Who don't sow his seed
In anything wounded enough to breed
Because after all what fun is power
If you can't act like a rock star?

Welcome to the new Wild West
Each man for himself
Civilized steeples
And lonely people
Welcome to the new

As for me
I've been petty and unkind
But I know my own mind
And since it seems clear
There's no one leading us here
The only thing left it appears
Is to task ourselves to be better each time
Then those before us

We'll be an army of thieves
Of self-freed slaves
Of mild-mannered maids
We'll fight with whispers and blades
So get ready, a new day is dawning

Welcome to the new Wild West
Each man for himself
A nation of civilized steeples
And lonely people
Welcome to the new Wild West