Wild Card

Moonlight on a shovel blade, hands tied tight Kneeling in the desert on the wrong end of night Man in a checkered suit with a cigarette glow Says nothing personal, friend, it's just how these things go Talking 'bout a chip like it's worth more than skin Talking to the grave that they're laying me in Flash from the muzzle and the black rolled through Last thing I heard was the wind, then you But the dirt don't keep what the dirt don't own Two in the dirt and one in my head They planted me shallow and they left me for dead But hands found my collar in the cold hard clay And the man in the checkers gonna rue the day I came back wrong, I came back right I came back walking out into the light The desert tried to keep me but I wouldn't stay And the man in the checkers gonna rue the day Woke up stitched in a stranger's bed Doc with a needle going 'round my head Learned my hands again, learned my name Learned that luck's a lady but she likes a rigged game No flag on my shoulder, no cause in my chest Just a hole where a memory used to rest They ask me who I'm riding for out on this ledge I flipped my last coin and it stuck on the edge But the dirt don't keep what the dirt don't own Two in the dirt and one in my head They planted me shallow and they left me for dead But hands found my collar in the cold hard clay And the man in the checkers gonna rue the day I came back wrong, I came back right I came back walking out into the light The desert tried to keep me but I wouldn't stay And the man in the checkers gonna rue the day They keep asking which side I'm on I'm on the side of the road Always have been Coin's got two faces, mine lands on the edge Two in the dirt and one in my head They planted me shallow and they left me for dead But hands found my collar in the cold hard clay And the man in the checkers gonna rue the day I came back wrong, I came back right I came back walking out into the light The desert tried to keep me but I wouldn't stay And the man in the checkers gonna rue the day Got a package to deliver and a debt to collect Long road north, better show it respect

Boots on the blacktop, sun on my neck Every roadside town another wreck to inspect Asking every barkeep with a face like stone You seen a checkered suit come rolling through your zone Some point north and some just stare Some sell lies for the price of a prayer I pay in caps and I pay in lead Whatever keeps the road unwinding up ahead And the highway hums a hungry tune Follow the suit through the dust and the ash Follow the smoke and the powder flash Every mile is a debt I keep Every town got secrets buried six feet deep Follow the suit till the trail runs true North star burning in a bed of blue I don't ride for the crown or the creed Just the long road home and the wrongs that bleed Came upon a town where the fires still smoked Crosses on the hill where the buzzards spoke Mark of the Bull burned into the gate A lottery of lives where the loser's fate waits Further up the road stood the Bear's own men Paper-thin promises, stretched too thin Two great powers pulling at the seams And me in the middle, walking through their schemes And the highway hums a hungry tune Follow the suit through the dust and the ash Follow the smoke and the powder flash Every mile is a debt I keep Every town got secrets buried six feet deep Follow the suit till the trail runs true North star burning in a bed of blue I don't ride for the crown or the creed Just the long road home and the wrongs that bleed Bull brands the flesh and the Bear signs the page Two kinds of cage for two kinds of wage I tip my hat and I keep my stride Ain't no brand fits a coin on its side Follow the suit through the dust and the ash Follow the smoke and the powder flash Every mile is a debt I keep Every town got secrets buried six feet deep Follow the suit till the trail runs true North star burning in a bed of blue I don't ride for the crown or the creed Just the long road home and the wrongs that bleed Then over the ridge came a light so loud A neon halo on a desert cloud

City on a hill wrapped in electric lace Old world lights on a new world face Gates full of soldiers, streets full of sin Everybody smiling like they're letting you win Up in the tower lives a man on a screen Two hundred years old and immaculately clean Says courier, that chip you carried 'cross the sand Is the key to the future, put it back in my hand But every deal in here's been dealt before The house always wins, that's the law of the light Every soul on the floor thinks their luck's running right The house always wins till the ceiling caves in Till somebody new pulls a chair and sits in So shine on, city, in your neon crown I've been shot in the head, I've been swallowed by ground The house always wins, so I learned from the fall Don't play their table, come to own it all Found the checkered suit in his velvet den Same smug smile, same cigarette grin Said he pulled the trigger 'cause the stakes were steep Said the game was crooked from the very first deal Well I walked through graves to stand in this room Carried your bullets like a debt, like a doom Luck's a fickle lady when you cheat her, friend And she walked in with me at the end But every deal in here's been dealt before The house always wins, that's the law of the light Every soul on the floor thinks their luck's running right The house always wins till the ceiling caves in Till somebody new pulls a chair and sits in So shine on, city, in your neon crown I've been shot in the head, I've been swallowed by ground The house always wins, so I learned from the fall Don't play their table, come to own it all The man in the tower wants his chip The Bear wants the river, the Bull wants the whip And the platinum weight sitting cold in my hand Might be worth more than any of them understand The house always wins, that's the law of the light Every soul on the floor thinks their luck's running right The house always wins till the ceiling caves in Till somebody new pulls a chair and sits in So shine on, city, in your neon crown I've been shot in the head, I've been swallowed by ground The house always wins, so I learned from the fall Don't play their table, come to own it all Debt collected, ledger clean Now every king wants the in-between

Bear came knocking with a stack of forms Talking taxes, talking order, talking uniform Says son, we're democracy, stretched but true Sign here and the republic will take care of you But I've seen your care out on Route line Rangers spread like butter over too much bread Good intentions marching on a broken spine An empire's just a promise with a border and a debt Whose side, whose side (no side, no side) The Bear wants my rifle, the Bull wants my spine The tower wants forever drawn in one straight line Everybody's preaching me a party creed But I know what a coin's got that they'll never read Two faces minted, heads or tails to call Mine spins in the sunlight and it lands on the edge It lands on the edge every time it falls I ain't nobody's soldier and I keep my pledge Bull came preaching with a brand and a chain Talking discipline carved out of human pain Says weakness is a sickness and the cure is a cross Every road he's ever walked is a lesson in loss And the man in the tower hums his lullaby Order everlasting 'neath a painted sky Three hands reaching for the same old prize The river and the dam where the real power lies Whose side, whose side (no side, no side) The Bear wants my rifle, the Bull wants my spine The tower wants forever drawn in one straight line Everybody's preaching me a party creed But I know what a coin's got that they'll never read Two faces minted, heads or tails to call Mine spins in the sunlight and it lands on the edge It lands on the edge every time it falls I ain't nobody's soldier and I keep my pledge Every flag is a bedsheet somebody bled for Every anthem's a lullaby sung to a war So let the Bear keep growling and the Bull keep steam I'll walk the line between them like a fever dream When the dust finally settles on this whole affair The edge of my coin will still be standing there The Bear wants my rifle, the Bull wants my spine The tower wants forever drawn in one straight line Everybody's preaching me a party creed But I know what a coin's got that they'll never read Two faces minted, heads or tails to call Mine spins in the sunlight and it lands on the edge It lands on the edge every time it falls I ain't nobody's soldier and I keep my pledge Then the radio crackled with a stranger's song A promise of treasure where the lost belong

Woke up in a fountain with a weight on my throat Steel collar ticking like a countdown note Red fog crawling over broken streets Faceless things in hazmat moving under the sheets A voice in my ear with a hostage plan Says welcome to the tomb of a desperate man Grand casino, never opened, never lost Built on a promise, priced at any cost And the bell keeps calling through the crimson haze Gold and ghosts, gold and ghosts The ones who want it worst always pay the most She sleeps in the mountain in her wedding gown A city of treasure that drags you down Begin again, but learn to let go The heaviest thing that a heart can hold Is everything it can't leave alone Gold and ghosts, and the fog rolls slow Every soul trapped here was clawing for the same A vault full of glitter with a hair-trigger frame The old world's sickness sealed under glass Greed with a doorman, greed with a mask I found the vault, saw the bars stacked high Enough to buy the city and the desert and the sky And the ghost of the builder whispered through the gloom Take it all with you, make this vault your tomb And the bell keeps calling through the crimson haze Gold and ghosts, gold and ghosts The ones who want it worst always pay the most She sleeps in the mountain in her wedding gown A city of treasure that drags you down Begin again, but learn to let go The heaviest thing that a heart can hold Is everything it can't leave alone Gold and ghosts, and the fog rolls slow I stood in a room where a fortune slept Counted what I'd carry, counted what I'd kept Then I set it down All of it Some doors you only walk out of empty Gold and ghosts, gold and ghosts The ones who want it worst always pay the most She sleeps in the mountain in her wedding gown A city of treasure that drags you down Begin again, but learn to let go The heaviest thing that a heart can hold Is everything it can't leave alone Gold and ghosts, and the fog rolls slow Collar came off at the canyon's mouth Lighter than ever, I wandered south

Green in the canyon where the rivers run clear Like the war never found it, like the sky came near Tribes in the tall grass, painted and proud And a storm on the border wearing white like a shroud They speak of a man who was fire's own kin Doused in the pitch for the weight of his sin Thrown down burning to a canyon grave But the fire couldn't finish what the dark couldn't cave Some men die twice and rise in between Burned man, burned man, wrapped in your scars Reading by lamplight under vengeful stars The hand that holds scripture is the hand that holds flame And both of them trembling at the sound of your name I know what it is to crawl out of a grave To carry the mark of the death that you gave So which fire wins when the canyon goes dim The one in your heart or the one under your skin He asked me plainly with his ledger of pain Do I break their warband, do I burn their plain Wrath is a river that remembers its course Mercy's a mustang that'll throw you with force And me, I carry neither creed nor crown I've watched both empires burn a town So I told him straight what the road taught me Weigh them both honest, then choose and be free Some men die twice and rise in between Burned man, burned man, wrapped in your scars Reading by lamplight under vengeful stars The hand that holds scripture is the hand that holds flame And both of them trembling at the sound of your name I know what it is to crawl out of a grave To carry the mark of the death that you gave So which fire wins when the canyon goes dim The one in your heart or the one under your skin He looked at me like a man reading his own reflection Two dead men walking, one wrapped in cloth, one in luck The valley held its breath And somewhere the war chose a smaller shape Burned man, burned man, wrapped in your scars Reading by lamplight under vengeful stars The hand that holds scripture is the hand that holds flame And both of them trembling at the sound of your name I know what it is to crawl out of a grave To carry the mark of the death that you gave So which fire wins when the canyon goes dim The one in your heart or the one under your skin I left the valley greener than I came Not every fire needs feeding to stay flame

Woke up on a slab with a brand new scar Ceiling full of stars and they're talking, they are Five floating screens with the bedside manner Of a chainsaw waltzing through a china planner Says congratulations, you're a miracle, chum We borrowed your brain, and your heart, and then some I said give it all back and they laughed in stereo Welcome to the crater where the sane don't go And the whole big empty starts to hum I got the big empty blues, hole in my head Running on science and spite instead Toasters talk trash and the stealth suits cry Doctors in jars won't tell me why But a courier walks and a courier hauls Even with echoes bouncing off his skull walls So crank up the static, let the lightning loose I got the big empty blues and it ain't no use Fought a pack of lobotomised gentlemen Traded haymakers with my own kin then Met my own brain in a tank of green Rudest little organ that I've ever seen Says you dragged us through gunfights, graves and gin I've been safer floating here than I ever been in But you're more than the meat and you're more than the miles So take back your matter and go walk your trials And the whole big empty starts to hum I got the big empty blues, hole in my head Running on science and spite instead Toasters talk trash and the stealth suits cry Doctors in jars won't tell me why But a courier walks and a courier hauls Even with echoes bouncing off his skull walls So crank up the static, let the lightning loose I got the big empty blues and it ain't no use Somewhere under all that chrome and madness Sat the arsenal of the old world, still dreaming Weapons with no war left to fight Remember that It matters later I got the big empty blues, hole in my head Running on science and spite instead Toasters talk trash and the stealth suits cry Doctors in jars won't tell me why But a courier walks and a courier hauls Even with echoes bouncing off his skull walls So crank up the static, let the lightning loose I got the big empty blues and it ain't no use Took my brain to go, tipped my hat to the dome Crazier than ever, I moseyed home

There's a scar in the earth where a highway died Torn like a letter that the world never replied Skeletons of overpasses clawing at the sky Storms full of razors and the ghosts don't lie They say I've been here, before the bullet, before the fame Delivered a package with a harmless name And the ground woke up with a fire below A town became a canyon in a single glow The road remembers what the walker forgets Meet me at the divide, where the earth split wide Where the missiles still sleep and the old flags hide You carried the spark, says the man in the storm Now carry the weight of a world unborn Two couriers standing where the map turns black One holds the future, one can't look back The road makes the walker, but hear what I say The walker picks the road at the break of day He wore a nation's colours on a back bent low Old-world stars faded to a rust-red glow Said you wrote this ruin and you signed it blind History's an author with a crooked spine Says pick your bear, pick your bull, pick your tower's chrome Or watch me send fire to every home And I stood in the ash of my own blank page And answered the storm with a steady gauge The road remembers what the walker forgets Meet me at the divide, where the earth split wide Where the missiles still sleep and the old flags hide You carried the spark, says the man in the storm Now carry the weight of a world unborn Two couriers standing where the map turns black One holds the future, one can't look back The road makes the walker, but hear what I say The walker picks the road at the break of day I never chose the fire that followed my footsteps But I choose what I carry from here So stand down the launch keys, fold up your flag Two dead letters walking with the same old tag The past is a canyon, wide and deep But I don't owe my future to the bombs that sleep Meet me at the divide, where the earth split wide Where the missiles still sleep and the old flags hide You carried the spark, says the man in the storm Now carry the weight of a world unborn Two couriers standing where the map turns black One holds the future, one can't look back The road makes the walker, but hear what I say The walker picks the road at the break of day He lowered the flag and he let me through Said whatever you build, build it true

Came back from the canyon with my ledger squared Every debt accounted, every nightmare aired City full of runners bringing sealed demands The Bear wants my signature, the Bull wants my hands The man in the tower's still preaching his math A century of order down a single path But I've walked enough roads that were drawn by the dead Time somebody dealt from a new deck instead Shuffle up (shuffle up), deal me in (deal me in) I'm the wild card, baby, watch the table turn Fold the Bear, fold the Bull, let the old bets burn Tip my hat to the tower, pull the plug on the throne This city's gonna stand on its own No kings, no chains, no borrowed creed Just the luck we make and the room to breathe Coin on its edge in the neon glow I'm the wild card, and it's my deal now Told the Bear, go home, tend the land you hold An empire overdrawn always folds Told the Bull to his face what his brand's really worth A cage full of thunder don't inherit the earth And the man on the screen with his two-hundred-year plan I unplugged forever with a steady hand Not for greed, not for glory, not a crown on my head For a town with no master and a sky overhead Shuffle up (shuffle up), deal me in (deal me in) I'm the wild card, baby, watch the table turn Fold the Bear, fold the Bull, let the old bets burn Tip my hat to the tower, pull the plug on the throne This city's gonna stand on its own No kings, no chains, no borrowed creed Just the luck we make and the room to breathe Coin on its edge in the neon glow I'm the wild card, and it's my deal now Neutral never meant I don't care It means I read every hand at the table And decided the pot belongs to the players All of them I'm the wild card, baby, watch the table turn Fold the Bear, fold the Bull, let the old bets burn Tip my hat to the tower, pull the plug on the throne This city's gonna stand on its own No kings, no chains, no borrowed creed Just the luck we make and the room to breathe Coin on its edge in the neon glow I'm the wild card, and it's my deal now Then the sirens rolled over the river's spine The Bull crossed the water, and the Bear held the line

Smoke on the water where the turbines groan Concrete colossus that the old world's grown The Bull comes wading with his banners red The Bear's dug in with a thousand riflebeds And me through the middle with my collar low Every checkpoint parting like they already know The courier's crossing and the ledger's due One river, one city, one road cut through And the water don't care whose blood runs in Hold the dam, hold the line, hold your breath and pray The old world's children came to bleed today But when the guns fall quiet and the flags all drop The river keeps rolling and it don't ever stop I came to end the auction on this stretch of stone No Bear, no Bull, no ghost on a throne The city stands free and the deal is done Signed by nobody, and so it's won Fought through the spillways, smoke in my eyes Old-world thunder tearing open the skies Met the Bull's great champion on the eastern span Told him the same I'd tell any man Your war ends here, take your legion home The desert's got graves enough of its own And the Bear's brass wept when I made the call This river answers no one, that's the law for all And the water don't care whose blood runs in Hold the dam, hold the line, hold your breath and pray The old world's children came to bleed today But when the guns fall quiet and the flags all drop The river keeps rolling and it don't ever stop I came to end the auction on this stretch of stone No Bear, no Bull, no ghost on a throne The city stands free and the deal is done Signed by nobody, and so it's won They shot me over a chip and buried me shallow I climbed out of a grave to get here Walked the long road, let go of the gold Weighed the fires, took back my mind Stood at the divide and answered for my roads And when they asked me, at the end, whose side I was on I said: the city's, the river's, the road's Package delivered Hold the dam, hold the line, hold your breath and pray The old world's children came to bleed today But when the guns fall quiet and the flags all drop The river keeps rolling and it don't ever stop I came to end the auction on this stretch of stone No Bear, no Bull, no ghost on a throne The city stands free and the deal is done Signed by nobody, and so it's won Neon on the water, quiet on the ridge A coin on its edge on the crossing bridge Where the courier walked, they still tell it so The wild card won, then he turned to go