Can I hold it fast Till the final gasp Can the tale survive the telling Will this feeling ever last And it's a long old slog With that mean black dog That calls from the mire And dares my heart be free Try to keep it sweet Baby make ends meet Heading in the right direction Just maybe down the wrong street Speaking through the mesh With her sumptuous flesh That ghost in the wires that calls out my name The mockingbird choir that calls it again That old mystifier that dares my heart be free Baby now Couldn't you just once Just once let the damn thing be Going around thinking like that Won't have nothing left to hold on to All the subtle ways That a face betrays Every hurt that burns within it In the flicker of its gaze And as I fall beneath Well it's a new green leaf That tells from on high of all that is blessed In each day that rises east into west That springs from the bough And dares my heart be free Baby now Couldn't you just once Just once let the damn thing be Going around talking like that Won't have nothing left to hold on to Feel that autumn wind Where my hair has thinned All the cares we never asked for And all the loves we don't intend And through my sleepless brains Well it's an endless train That pours through the darkness mile after mile Drinking the diesel, burning the oil That screams to the night And dares my heart be free Dressed from head to toe In the afterglow Offering prayers and supplications To quite what I'll never know And then it drops so strange Behind the jagged range That circle of fire that dares my heart be free That ghost in the wires that dares my heart be free That voice from the mire that dares my heart be free