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Trains: Clowns in the Rain…

“The American Indians were victims of war. The Cavalry raised hell with them and they got murdered or put out.  The descendents of these Indians have survived and some ride trains.  The Indians got put out, along with the Civil War vets, the Vietnam vets, the drunks, the confused, the uninspired—all the men and women of ‘moronic’ or ‘inept’ personality.  They are the railroad hobos and turnpiker tramps.” 

–Eddy Joe Cotton, Hobo.  

 ************ 

How many terrorism fighters will ride the trains?  How many will become “drunks?”  “Confused?”   

These men are the new cowboys

And when these bridgers pass away

‘Take the westbound’ as they say

Their offspring will safeguard the cannonball secrets

carry the tradition

to a land far far away

And no matter which vice they stop to please

they will always know their place—

in the trees

out of sight

a whisper below the breeze. 

———Eddy Joe Cotton, Hobo 

************* 

The train thunders through town right now.   

“Ride the train,

Ride the train,

Wherever I’m goin’ I ride the train

Sleepin’ in a boxcar when it rains

Ride the train

Ride the train”      

 ————Alabama (the country music band of yesterday) 

************* 

Haditha and Ishaqi are not the crimes of single soldiers pullin’ triggers.  They are our crimes, collectively.   

Will we all be ridin’ trains?  Doubt it.  Most of “we” will all be livin’ large while the  maimed in spirit and mind will be on the trains leading anywhere but here.

************ 

“A clown in the rain

He thinks about having a nice home

A place that would keep him out of the hard

   weather

But he knows that would break him down—

Trying to keep up and feel right

Fly straight, think straight in a crooked world

Easier to catch a cold and a freight

Stay free

Like a clown in the rain”  

——–Eddy Joe Cotton, Hobo 

A crooked world, indeed.  A war is going on.  Do you feel it?   

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