Bruce Springsteen Visitation At Fort Horn Lyrics

Behind the walls where heat lightning fallsOn five starred gnat-faced princessThe buffalo man shoots at the tin catsTurns and shouts children, blow your bridgesOn death row halls where dustmen stallWhere time’s an enemy and a friendAt night jackals crawl from the cracks in the wallsAnd salvation is never spokenMorning sickness breaks the garrison gateThe cavalry cries for treasonThe soldier strokes his pony and goes to shine the captain’s swordIn this young boy’s eyes lie reasonAnd the sergeant bursts in and cries I caught a prisoner, captain,A prisoner, what ho !The captain looks up and says let her goBut captain, she patrols the light ships that patrol the sea aroundThe rainbow tips, whose bagpiper wail unbrokenShe haunts the night and the dawnin’ lightOn her sounds and words your cavalry chokin’ The captain says have no fear, boysFor what you hearBecause danger can’t be spoken The whirlwind crackles and I hear the rustle of shacklesFrom the stockade door bursts merlinHis eyes red, and swollen, like they’ve been pushed into the sunHis robes aflame and burnin’He jumps a horse, tries to get awayBut he gets caught in his eyes, tangled in his eyesHe falls to the ground, his neck is brokenHis spirit rises high in the western skyThe magician lies an empty tokenThe sergeant walks over and kicks his bodyAnd says captain, he’s dead - what shall we do with him ? The captain says hang himFor though his live moments on this earth are well spentAnd I can se his body is sure well bentIt’s magic that must be broken Now night cradles lowThe penniless weed plays wrath felt in the captain’s cornerWith anvil spread wide, the captain glidesEach blow to scare her, not to hurt herShe spits what truth at the captain’s bootsBut he holds his rage suspendedThe sergeant comes in stinkin’ of soldier’s ginAnd cries captain, the storm she blows unendingOh and the lightning cracked and the sky was hackedBy dagger rain it was tornAnd the yard was charged into a raging seaAnd the captain ran crazilyFor the first time in his life, in the captain’s heartFear was bornThe captain storms out on the stoop, panic strikesHe sees merlin’s hung body stretched by the neckSilhouetted on his doorThe sergeant screams captain, look high, look to the sky !Some whirling, swirling emission ...But the captain falls to his knees crying silent pleas’cause he knows, he knows, and he thinks to himselfA magician...