| The Pain Train
My wife and I took the train, now
It's not like you couldn't
We traveled and worked the crowd
We smiled and served and served
This is our station: to serve the crowd
They are entitled to the life they lead
And don't you deny it, or you'll bleed
You'll be reminded, daily
The ones up front live like royalty
This is their entitled destiny: to lead
My wife and I: we're allowed to breed
We serve and serve the need; our loyalty
The entitled ones; the ones with position
The ones up front in the Koosh Coach
The ones at the front of the herd, we've heard
There's reasons they're fixtures there
There's reasons they're prisoners up there
They can't get off the train;
Reasons don't make sense, but they're there
Status, for one, don't you see
They got their money invested up there
They got their whole lives up there
They're vested up there, in the style, up there
They got safety up there, in the Koosh Coach
We serve and serve and serve up there
Me and my wife, this is true
We serve with a smile and a kind concern
Those up in the front got the success, you see
Can't lose that or be thrown off the train, wannabee
Success spells status and money and pride
And that gets lots of that hot sex for the Big Boss
Ya can go far with a ticket like that; and fast
The easy fast track
Been born with the ticket in the pocket
Gotta get on that train; it's a destiny and a cost
Born with the ticket in the hand
Went to college high-stepping to the Grand
This is the lure of the Koosh Coach life
This is the plan of the Grand Stand Man
Living high and large in the Koosh Coach Land
Riding high this land on the Koosh Train
Got a ticket at birth to ride this train
Ain't goona deny loving it here, in the style
All the while, me and my wife we serve and serve and serve
Prosperity rides high up front on the train of life
Escaping all the low-life dangers and the detailed complicated
Leaving all the small deals to the small dealers
And the small-time law thievers, back of the train
In the cattle car and the battle-scarred boxcar trails
Where all the pain remains; on the pain train
Only smiles and kindnesses in the Up Front Car
It ain't proper to bring it to the front, to the Koosh Bar
Don't damage the view; keep the scenery bright
"Hey Sir, can I get a light?"
Gotta light up the cigar there, in the Bar Car
'Cause there ain't no real fresh air up there in the front
Anyway....
My wife and I we take a break now and then
When we get to where we can't bare the air up there
In the front of the pain train
Where the air never changes
Can't blow it out, no way
Can't get it out of the lungs, you're born that way, they say.
Me and my wife, we get off that train now and then
We catch the next one, or the next
We take a break now and then, from the pain train
We walk along the tracks goin' the north way
We walk and walk and walk
It's our way to get the air out--or in
Aren't sure which it is for awhile;
'til we been walkin' for a mile, or so
Basking in the sun and the fresh air
Sooner than later we forget about the Koosh Train
The pain train of the Koosh Car Game
We're free for as long as we can walk
We're free to walk and walk and talk
Not like on the front of that train
Where questions are burdens for the crowd
Where answers are hard on the soul
There in the stain of the pain train
There in the bosom of the name game
The answers are hard to find under the pain
We've tried and tried and tried
To find them there on the train
We find 'em on the trail
Between the wildflowers there along the tracks
There all alone with the sun and the harsh wind
Between the tracks in the cracks
We find the answers there along the walk
Right there in the midst of the talk, and the walk
We find it there in the midst of the nowhere Koosh cracks
There with the sun and the clouds and the tracks;
We wait for the next train to pass
We decide whether to work the next train
We decide when to get back on the next Koosh train
The pain train running fast along the Valley
The valley of wildflowers and the nowhere miles
We decide when to get on the train, to serve
'Cause there's always another bunch riding the rails
We decide when to get out of the valley and serve
'Cause you know bread don't grow on trees
Me and my wife need to live
But real living ain't goin' on on the pain train
Never really been any real life on the pain train
Only high-styled-Koosh Games
We ain't been born with the tickets, ya know
We weren't fortunate that way, ya know
Or were we?
We wave to the train as it goes by
We waived to the train with our heads held high
We waived to the Kooshers with smiles and kindness
We waived to the train like fools, we did
We waived 'till our arms fell silent
Warned the dangers and details of riding the train
Not born with tickets we just thought it right
Not to ride the train all that night, not all the way
We thought walkin' and talkin' was part of the story
We thought they knew this kind of glory
We figured the conductor must 'ave known
'Cause it don't take a scientist to know physics
And it don't take a genius to be a mystic
We waived and waived and waived
We did what we could to help them to see, ya know
We did
We smiled and served the best that we could
With what we'd been given at birth
Sure weren't the up front tickets and the Koosh Berth
We'd been born with what we had, and no less
So we waved 'til our arms fell off
We waived as our hearts went soft
Aside the trail of the Koosh Train Pain Train tracks
We yelled 'til our voices gave out
All they did was wave back
All they did was wave and smile a Cherin grin
There on the Koosh train, on the Plush Train,
On the Gravy Train of life;
They'd say it's a shame about those two lonely walkers
Those walkers along the train tracks
The talkers along the pain train tracks
Too bad they weren't like us
Born with a ticket joined to the handle of the silver spoon
Like a set of keys on a keychain
The ticket of life on the Koosh Train
The fast fast Koosh train
The one that goes North overnight
Gets to the North Country over-tight
The fast fast train in the fast fast lane of life
The pain of travel ain't so bad when ya got a ticket
When you got the front seater in life
Don't know what the fuss is all about
Those walkers and talkers go on and on about
"What's all the fuss about, anyway", they say
They've got places to go and people to see
Tried to tell 'em but they just couldn't see
Tried to signal but they refused the plea
Tried to warn them, but they waved back at me
We tried to tell them,
But they had their doubts about us,
We tried to tell them,
"THE BRIDGE IS OUT! THE BRIDGE IS OUT!"
They just could see that far
Didn't see the Northern Star
That night, on the Pain Train
~~carefulcarpenter
__________________
"Tell me what you see; and I'll know where you are"
~~cc
I gave love; you gave me a thistle;
We shared tenderness; then you ran away;
I planted a rose; and you blossomed;
I had fresh hopes; tho' winter froze them solid | 
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