Little Man What Now?

At the back of the train he stares out the window,
 The carriage is empty, commuting is done; it's the end of the line.
 Grasping for memories, searching for landmarks in fields once familiar
 He can't recognise now the hedgerows are
 gone the blackbirds have flown silencing song
 This wasteland belongs to a murder of crows
 The hills are now levelled, the rich soil is stolen
 The green belt unbuckled, dirt yellow behemoths belch smoke at the sun
 Stark wooden crosses mark out the boundaries;
 parcels of Promised Land passed on by greedy hands
 Selling dreams almost true, a show house on view,
 A country domain in all but name as the country's gone
 His fingers brushed the sticky beards of the barley
 Pulled tubers from the fragrant furrowed earth
 Snatched berries from twisted briars, plucked apples from witchy trees
 Before the snakes took over paradise and the black dog first appeared.
 Back in the day with no cares and no
 worries it was just about being alive
 Holding his own out drinking the
 other guys, dancing alone on the floor
 Popping the pills swallowing medicine, life was just passing him by
 Sleeping in alleyways,
 waking with strangers, staring at ceilings avoiding their eyes
 He'd fight his own shadow,
 accepting the beatings and come back asking for more
 Scared of no one except himself,
 if he could only just be somebody else
 He hid in his heart alone in the
 darkness and fought back the tears from his eyes
 The weight of his world the heaviest
 burden, crushing his chest and his mind
 Out of dreams are born everything, out of hope comes the light
 He woke up to the vision chased the dog to the night.
 Homed in on the goal he took off like a
 rocket; hit the targets he set out to achieve
 He'd arrived on the scene like a well-timed
 explosive; the competition was all blown away
 High on the crest of a wave of
 champagne, grabbing the headlines seizing the day
 Taking his bows to a wall of applause his
 charm and his guile the key to opening doors
 Racking up bonuses,
 counting the spoils he was a fast track mean millionaire
 Lost in a blind of success and ambition he didn't belong anywhere
 He hid in his heart alone in the
 darkness and fought back the tears from his eyes
 The weight of his world the heaviest
 burden, crushing his chest and his mind
 Sometimes dreams are not everything, sometimes hope's out of sight
 Held in the realm of the helpless in the jaws of the dog in the night.
 Desperate for love,
 a guardian angel to seal up the cracks in his soul,
 To build him a home,
 lighten his burden to ward off the dog from his door.
 She appeared in a sun kissed field, wild flowers in her hair
 With a black hound beside her of which he wasn't aware
 They married on an island under blue skies
 It wasn't long before the clouds arrived
 It rained down broken bottles the blood flowed with the wine
 The arguments more bitter their love soured over time
 The black dog lay between them every evening
 In the silence there were no words that could be said
 The bonuses were missing, the cheques had disappeared
 There was no fight left within him it was time to take his leave
 The unborn child was counted as a blessing
 The curse of lies a testament of hate
 The dogs of war were gathered the lawyers loosed from chains
 To strip him of his dignity and tar him with the blame
 He left the house in the twilight of a morning
 His briefcase in the unlocked cabriolet
 Resigned from lost positions, retiring from the fray
 A rucksack of possessions all he dared to take away
 Abandoning the memories
 He stole away.
 He stepped off the grid fell out the system
 Pitched up his life in a derelict siding, rusting under the stars
 Gathering strawberries,
 plundering apple trees he lived of
 the land as the moons crossed the skies
 In the first winter sun,
 with the fires dead and gone, the black dog returned,
 He followed the rails to the bright city lights
 From the Waverley steps he stares at the station
 Tied to the black dog faithful beside him at the end of the line
 Catching the coins from wary commuters
 tossed to the hollow of a long empty coffee cup
 Counting the cost of all that he's lost, all that sustains
 While snowflakes melt softly on the cold steel rails