Red Right Hand (from "Crying Lightning" single)

Take a little walk to the edge of town
And 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
And the humming wires
Well 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
And tell you that you've been a good boy
He'll rekindle all of those dreams
It took you a lifetime to destroy

He'll reach deep into the hole
Heal your shrinking soul
And there won't be a single thing
That you can do
He's a god, he's a man
He's a ghost, he's a guru

They're whispering his name
Across this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
Is a red right hand

You don't have no money
He'll get you some
If you haven't got no car
He'll get you one
You've got no self respect
You feel like an insect
Well don't you worry buddy
Cause here he comes
Through the ghetto and the barrio
And the bowery and the slums

A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his red right hand

You'll see him in your nightmares
You'll see him in your dreams
He'll appear out of nowhere
But he's not what he seems
You'll see him in your head and on the TV screen
Hey buddy, I'm warning you to turn it off
He's a ghost, he's a god
He's a man, he's a guru

You're one microscopic cog
In his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
His red right hand