Farm Boy

when I was a farm boy
working in snow
putting up fences
in shadow of skiddaw

it was cold in the morning
and my hands couldn't feel
but the hammers keep raining down
on wet posts of steal

and the sky made me frightened
with shape and with sound
configuration
to menace the ground

but I found in my heart
such peace and respite
from the nightmare of being young
in a cold caravan
as I lay in the dark
the silence was better
than any song ever sung

but the weather was changing
sweet spring in the air
I left the farmhouse
on a song and a prayer

and I came to your city
and the trash they call fame
where the hammers keep raining down
as the fence in your name

but whenever I ride north
and I look from the train
I can still see the farm boy
alone in the rain

but I found in my heart
such peace and respite
from the nightmare of being young
in a cold caravan
as I lay in the dark
the silence was better
than any song ever sung

but whenever I ride north
and I look from the train
I can still see the farm b