Tom Waits Lyrics

Album: Bone Machine

Black Wings Lyrics

(Tom Waits/K. Brennan)

Take an eye for an eye 

Take a tooth for a tooth

Just like they say in the Bible

Never leave a trace or forget a face

Of any man at the table

When the moon is a cold chiseled dagger

Sharp enough to draw blood from a stone

He rides through your dreams on a coach

And horses and the fence posts

In the midnight look like bones

Well they've stopped trying to hold him

With mortar, stone and chain

He broke out of every prison

Boots mount the staircase

The door is flung back open

He's not there for he has risen

He's not there for he has risen

Well he once killed a man with a guitar string

He's been seen at the table with kings

Well he once saved a baby from drowning

There are those who say beneath his coat there are wings

Some say they fear him

Others admire him

Because he steals his promise

One look in his eye

Everyone denies

Ever having met him

Ever having met him

He can turn himself into a stranger

Well they broke a lot of canes on his hide

he was born away in a cornfield

A fever beats in his head like a drum inside

Some say they fear him

Others admire him

Because he steals his promise

One look in his eye

Everyone denies

Ever having met him

Ever having met him