Don Conoscenti

(d. conoscenti / rusty speidel)

a month of record snows dragged the weaker trees down across the tracks.
even if it changed it's mind tomorrow,
that train's not coming back.
even if i started out today trying to clear the line...
everything about that train is past the reach of time.

when i lay my burdens down
will i rise up into heaven, hear the holy angel sounds? or will i end up like that train?
asleep beneath the snow. rusting in the rain
like that train.

had one friend in this world knew that train like me.
now he's lying in the graveyard out beside
where the switch house used to be.
right before he died eddie said "man, let it go.
pretty soon we'll both be dust.
when you build your dreams from glass and teel
...sand and rust is all your life becomes."
when i lay my burdens down
will i rise up into heaven, hear the holy angel sounds? or will i end up like that train?
asleep beneath the snow. rusting in the rain
like that train.
some cheat and steal for fortune.
some stumble onto fame.
if you leave this world defeated
you got your own damn self to blame.
I've seen everything i cared about
or built with my own hands
swept away like grains of desert sand.

when i lay my burdens down
will i rise up into heaven, hear the holy angel sounds? or will i end up like that train?
asleep beneath the snow. rusting in the rain
like that train.