Get up Jonah Songtext

von Bruce Cockburn

(I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers
It didn't take long - I don't know much about Turkish drummers -
But it made me think of Germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes
Who'd been in the Afghan secret police
Who made the observation
That it's hard
To live

Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang - and it occurred to me I was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else... Isn't that just what secret police are all about???)

Somebody stands in a window
Watches the river roll
Trains rumble in the foreground
With the weight of approaching dawn

Flames from the refinery
Rise broken, red and riveting
And the high vault of heaven
Looks far away and cold

There's howling in the factory yard
There's pounding in my head
I'm swollen up with unshed tears
Bloated like the dead...

(Instrumental break)

Blood and ashes - time burning
On the skyline dark against the stars
A solitary horseman - waiting

Lashed to the wheel
Whipping into the storm
Get up, Jonah
It's your time to be born