Lost in the Flood

by Bruce Springsteen

The ragamuffin gunner is returning home
Like a hungry runaway
He walks through town all alone
'He must be from the fort,' he hears the high school girls say
His countryside's burning with wolfman fairies
Dressed in drag for homicide
They hit and run, plead sanctuary
'Neath a holy stone they hide

They're breaking beams and crosses
With a spastic's reeling perfection
Nuns run bald through Vatican halls pregnant
Pleading immaculate conception
And everybody's wrecked on Main Street
From drinking unholy blood
Sticker smiles sweet as gunner breathes deep
His ankles caked in mud

And I said, 'Hey, gunner man, that's quicksand
'That's quicksand, that ain't mud
'Have you thrown your senses to the war?
'Or did you lose them in the flood?'

That pure American brother
Dull-eyed and empty-faced
He races Sundays in Jersey
In a Chevy stock Super Eight
He rides her low on the hip, on the side he's got Bound For Glory
In red, white, and blue flash paint
He leans on the hood telling racing stories
The kids call him Jimmy The Saint

Well the blaze and noise boy, he's gunnin' that bitch
Loaded to blasting point
He rides head first into a hurricane
And disappears into a point
And there's nothing left but some blood where the body fell
That is, nothing left that you could sell
just junk all across the horizon
A real highwayman's farewell

And I said, 'Hey kid, you think that's oil?
'Man, that ain't oil, that's blood'
I wonder what he was thinking when he hit that storm
Or was he just lost in the flood?

Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts
Whisper in the air
Some storefront incarnation of Maria
She's putting on me the stare
And Bronx's best apostle stands
With his hand on his own hardware
Everything stops, you hear five quick shots
The cops come up for air

And now the whiz-bang gang from uptown
They're shooting up the street
And that cat from the Bronx starts letting loose
But he gets blown right off his feet
And some kid comes blasting round the corner
But a cop puts him right away
He lays on the street holding his leg, screaming something in Spanish
Still breathing when I walked away

And someone said, 'Hey man did you see that?
'His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud'
I wonder what the dude was saying
Or was he just lost in the flood?

Hey man, did you see that?
Those poor cats are sure messed up
I wonder what they were getting into
Or were they all just lost in the flood?