Visitation At Fort Horn Lyrics

Behind the walls, where heat lightning falls On five-starred map-faced princes The buffalo man shoots at tin cans Turns and shouts 'Children, blow your bridges' In death row halls, where dust men stall For time's an enemy and a friend At night, jackals crawl from the cracks in the walls The salvation is never spoken Morning sickness breaks the garrison gates The cavalry cries for treason The soldier strokes his pony And goes to shine the Captain's sword In this young boy's eyes lie reason But then the Sergeant burst in, says "Captain, I caught a prisoner, Captain. A prisoner, what ho? The Captain looks up and says, 'Let her go." 'But Captain, she commands the lightships that patrol the sea around the rainbow tips Whose bagpipes wail unbroken She haunts the night and the dawn and the light On her sounds and words, your cavalry's choking' The Captain says, 'Have no fear, boys, for what you hear Because danger can't be spoken' The war wind crackles and I hear the rustle of shackles From the stockade door bursts Merlin His eyes red and swollen, like they've been pushed into the sun His robe's aflame and burning He jumps a horse, tries to get away, but gets caught in his irons, Tangled in his irons, and he falls to the ground, his neck was broken His spirit rises high into the western sky The magician lies an empty token The sergeant walks over and kicks his body and says "Captain, he's dead, uh, I think he's dead, uh, what should we do with him?' The Captain says, 'Hang him.' For those live moments on this earth are well-spent And I can see his body sure well-bent It's his magic that must be broken And now night cradles low The penniless weed plays raw filth in the Captain's corner With anvils spread wide, the Captain glides Each blow to scare her, not hurt her She spits with truth at the Captain's boots But he holds his rage suspended The Sergeant comes stinking of soldiers' gin And cries 'Captain, the storm, she blows unending' Whoa, and the lightning cracked And the sky was hacked by dagger rain It was torn, and the yard was charged into a raging sea And the Captain ran crazily For the first time in his life, in the Captain's heart, fear was born So the Captain storms out on the stoop Panics when he sees Merlin's hung body stretched by the neck Silhouetted on his door The sergeant screams 'Captain, look high, look to the sky Some whirling, swirling emission' The Captain falls to his knees, crying silent pleas Because he knows, he knows, And he thinks to himself, 'A magician'