The Cool Cool River

Moves like a fist through traffic   Anger and no one can heal it   Shoves a little bump into the momentum   It’s just a little lump   But you feel it in the...           In the creases and the shadows              With a rattling deep emo-tion          The cool  cool riv-er        Sweeps the wild white ocean      Yes Boss. The government handshake   Yes Boss. The crusher of language           Yes Boss. Mr. Stillwater                  The face at the edge of the banquet           The cool    the cool riv-er       The cool  the cool riv-er           I believe in the  future   I may live    in my car   My radio tuned to   The voice      of a star   Song dogs barking at the break of dawn   Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm                    And these old hopes and fears         Still at my side           Anger and no one can heal it   Slides through the metal detector   Lives like a mole in a motel        A slide in a slide projector     The cool       cool riv-er       Sweeps  the wild white ocean          The rage  the rage of love turns inward           To prayers of devotion          And these prayers are   The constant road across the wilderness   These prayers are  These prayers are the memory                   of God                 The memory            of God   And I believe in the  future   We shall         suffer no more                Maybe not in my lifetime       But in yours       I feel sure   Song dogs barking at the break of dawn   Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm                    And these streets   Quiet as a sleeping army   Send their battered dreams to heaven     to heaven    For the mother’s restless son   Who is a witness to who is a warrior    Who denies his urge to break and run   Who says: Hard times?   I’m used to them                                      The speeding planet burns   I’m used to that    My life’s so common it disappears   And sometimes     even music    Cannot substitute for   tears   Repeat and fade: