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At the back of the train he stares out the window The carriage is empty, commuting is done; it’s the end of the line Grasping for memories, searching for landmarks in fields once familiar He can’t recognise now the hedgerows are gone the blackbirds have flown silencing song This wasteland belongs to a murder of crows The hills are now levelled, the rich soil is stolen The green belt unbuckled, dirt yellow behemoths belch smoke at the sun Stark wooden crosses mark out the boundaries; parcels of Promised Land passed on by greedy hands Selling dreams almost true, a show house on view, a country domain in all but name as the country’s gone His fingers brushed the sticky beards of the barley Pulled tubers from the fragrant furrowed earth Snatched berries from twisted briars, plucked apples from witchy trees Before the snakes took over paradise and the black dog first appeared Back in the day with no cares and no worries it was just about being alive Holding his own out drinking the other guys, dancing alone on the floor Popping the pills swallowing medicine, life was just passing him by Sleeping in alleyways, waking with strangers, staring at ceilings avoiding their eyes He’d fight his own shadow, accepting the beatings and come back asking for more Scared of no one except himself, if he could only just be somebody else He hid in his heart alone in the darkness and fought back the tears from his eyes The weight of his world the heaviest burden, crushing his chest and his mind Out of dreams are born everything, out of hope comes the light SongtexteHe woke up to the vision chased the dog to the night Homed in on the goal he took off like a rocket; hit the targets he set out to achieve He’d arrived on the scene like a well-timed explosive; the competition was all blown away High on the crest of a wave of champagne, grabbing the headlines seizing the day Taking his bows to a wall of applause his charm and his guile the key to opening doors Racking up bonuses, counting the spoils he was a fast track mean millionaire Lost in a blind of success and ambition he didn’t belong anywhere He hid in his heart alone in the darkness and fought back the tears from his eyes The weight of his world the heaviest burden, crushing his chest and his mind Sometimes dreams are not everything, sometimes hope’s out of sight Held in the realm of the helpless in the jaws of the dog in the night Desperate for love, a guardian angel to seal up the cracks in his soul To build him a home, lighten his burden to ward off the dog from his door She appeared in a sun-kissed field, wildflowers in her hair With a black hound beside her of which he wasn’t aware They married on an island under blue skies It wasn’t long before the clouds arrived It rained down broken bottles the blood flowed with the wine The arguments more bitter their love soured over time The black dog lay between them every evening In the silence there were no words that could be said The bonuses were missing, the cheques had disappeared There was no fight left within him it was time to take his leave The unborn child was counted as a blessing The curse of lies a testament of hate The dogs of war were gathered the lawyers loosed from chains To strip him of his dignity and tar him with the blame He left the house in the twilight of a morning His briefcase in the unlocked cabriolet Resigned from lost positions, retiring from the fray A rucksack of possessions all he dared to take away Abandoning the memories He stole away He stepped off the grid fell out the system Pitched up his life in a derelict siding, rusting under the stars Gathering strawberries, plundering apple trees he lived of the land as the moons crossed the skies In the first winter sun, with the fires dead and gone, the black dog returned He followed the rails to the bright city lights From the Waverley steps he stares at the station Tied to the black dog faithful beside him at the end of the line Catching the coins from wary commuters tossed to the hollow of a long empty coffee cup Counting the cost of all that he’s lost, all that sustains While snowflakes melt softly on the cold steel rails Aus Songtexte Mania