Red Right Hand

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 in the humming wires
Hey man, 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, tell you that you've been a good boy
He'll rekindle all the dreams, it took you a lifetime to destroy
He'll reach deep into the hole, heal your shrinking soul
But 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 through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat is a red right hand

You don't have no money? He'll get you some
You don't have no car? He'll get you one
You don't have no self-respect, you feel like an insect
Well, don't you worry buddy 'cause here he comes
Through the ghettos and the barrio and the Bowery and the slum

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 ain't what he seems
You'll see him in your head, 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