I was far from home and lost and lonely,
namelessly bouncing around.
Spent too much time
and money in this little
Georgia town.
And nothing lights a fire,
just like running out of cash.
Well, I had enough to buy a one
-way ticket back to
Nashville.
To a bed I know, owned by a friend
who's learned it the hard way.
If you invite me in for coffee,
I'll unpack my bag and stay
Just like poor
Blanche
Dubois, I've also come to put my faith in
The charity of strangers and
honest transportation
So I find myself aboard this silver
bullet budget bus
With that creepy guy in sunglasses
down the back looking sus
And that old woman with her
belongings in a busted plastic bag
And all the
Nicol team devotees marked
the time to take a drag
We'd only just left
Chattanooga town
and I thought it prudent
To sit beside this young and wholesome
graduating college student
She was pondering where best
to go to do her
PhD
She said she had two options,
Australia or
Italy
I said, well, that's a no -brainer,
you better come study with us
That's about the time we both
heard something hit the bus
I counted six loud popping thuds
that came in quick succession
They went, that's my im pression
I innocently thought I'd kiss
just throwin' rocks for fun
But the guy sat up the back yelled,
Them be shots fired from a gun
And everyone stopped talkin'
And we all looked at each other
Not knowin' if to ride ourselves
a wheel or duck for cover
Then underneath the small explosion
The engine gave a hellish roar
Like when the stick slips outta
gear
And your foot's flat to the floor
Then the bus lost all control
And started swerving across the freeway
Just missed the concrete barrier
With about two metres leeway
I was seeing the gruesome shots
They'd use for the morning edition
Then someone be hind me moaned
We assumed the crash position
Oh my god
I did not know
That this was how
I was meant to go
I said, oh my
God, please save my neck
Don't want to die in this burning wreck
The driver kept her nerve,
she had all our souls to save
She stopped short on the verge of
what might have been our grave
Now everybody's thrilled as if
they've just been in the movies
They're calling up their families saying,
guess what just happened to me
Within ten minutes flat,
soon as you heard the sirens wail,
We're hemmed all around by squad cars,
flashing like
Boxing
Day sale.
Officer
Friendly got on board,
took out his pad to take some names,
Patting the heads of children,
and flirting with the dames,
He said, tell me now if any of
you've come to any harm,
He had
John
Chapter 317 tattooed along his arm,
He said, you can go stretch your legs
now, you might be sitting for some time
So I jumped off with the smokers and
from there surveyed the crime
First shot it grazed off the flank,
the second barely missed the tank
The third shot went right through and
lodged into the toilet door
The fourth shot pierced the luggage lock,
the fifth shot struck the engine block
Then the six shot popped the tire
and then it shredded to the core
After a while little bits of
the story filtered through
The shooter had been local and
the cops they now knew who
He was supposed to join the bus
back at the
Chattanooga station
He was late and tried to wave the driver
down but she's impatient
She's bent to her position
and a timetable to honour
So he tailed us to the freeway,
let the bullets rain upon us
Oh my
God, how close we've come
To marching towards your kingdom drum
I say, oh my
God, how close we've been
To staring down eternity
When the last cop pulled away,
we had been stuck out there for hours
It didn't take too long till the
collective mood, it sours
See my student friend,
she's wailing that she's now gonna be late
She's gonna have to call ahead,
cancel tonight's date
I said, feel lucky you're not dead,
you're really giving me the blues
And the next day safe in
Nashville, it didn't even make the news
In the history of
America, it was just another day
Now I'm made into that warm bed,
in there all day I'll stay
So if you ever find yourself
riding the bus from
Chattanooga
Keep your eyes open for pockets
with an outline like a luger
So what worries me the most
is that it's difficult to tell
If you should fear those who have missed
the bus or them who's punctual
you
