|
Wake up John it's time to go |
|
Come along John and don't be slow |
|
I bring you into procession just to help me deal |
|
With the border at my elbow and an author at |
|
my heel |
|
Marching in the morning down the path I |
|
blatantly seen |
|
I was sleeping in this garden |
|
Am I still within my dream? |
|
The echo of my heartbeat is the beating of a |
|
drum |
|
And all the earth is singing with life's sweet |
|
hum |
|
With violence all is silence, shuffle through it |
|
all |
|
The place where life is taken for the letter of |
|
the Lord |
|
Shake the holy water |
|
Summon up the God |
|
Dying's very easy |
|
Waiting's very hard |
|
A rope is hanging from the roof, a sight which |
|
puzzles me |
|
I thought that Jimmy would make the gallows |
|
tree |
|
But now all is revealed standing there is their |
|
command |
|
My feet are off the trapdoor with a rope |
|
around my hand |
|
And now the executioner is shaking hands with |
|
me |
|
"My duty I must carry out, you poor fella" says |
|
he |
|
A strap is tied around my feet and a bag upon |
|
my head |
|
And then the noose which separates the living |
|
from the dead |
|
Shake the holy water |
|
Summon up the God |
|
Dying's very easy |
|
Waiting's very hard |
|
Then he whispers to me "have you anything to |
|
say?" |
|
My mouth is dry, my throat is tight |
|
I answered "drop away" |
|
Silence now surrounds me, my heart is beating |
|
on |
|
The trapdoor hardly moves at all |
|
My life is still my own |
|
They sat me in the corner with my hands and |
|
feet still bound |
|
While the carpenter is called for and an |
|
explanation found |
|
The rangers walk with timbers |
|
I hear the hangman say |
|
"It's funny but it worked well, I tried it |
|
yesterday" |
|
All is pending now they say that your old days' |
|
nearly over |
|
Your life is good as ended but I hear their |
|
voices waiver |
|
Once more the bold is shaken and again I hang |
|
in limbo |
|
While the guards jump off the trapdoor |
|
And my body stands on tiptoe |
|
Shake the holy water |
|
Summon up the God |
|
Dying's very easy |
|
Waiting's very hard |
|
They stand me in the corner with my hands and |
|
feet still tied |
|
A warden holds onto the noose |
|
The trapdoor opens wide |
|
Is it magic or coincidence that keeps me on the |
|
brink |
|
It seems to work without me, will it kill me now |
|
I think |
|
Please I'm tired of living and I really want to |
|
die |
|
I was taken to the scalpel and I heard the |
|
hangman cry |
|
"I'm truly sorry, forgive these hands of mine" |
|
He drew the bolt with a pelt of jolt |
|
For the third and final time |
|
My life was spared that morning because it |
|
wasn't theirs to take |
|
Three's the vote and four it requires for a man |
|
to fill the stake |
