Bruce Cockburn Get Up Jonah Lyrics

Get Up Jonah Lyrics

(I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers

It didn't take long - I don't
know much about Turkish drummers -

But it made me think of Germany and
the guy who sold me cigarettes

Who'd been in the Afghan secret police

Who made the observation

That it's hard

To live 



Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec
who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang - and it occurred to me I
was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else...
Isn't that just what secret police are all about???) 



Somebody
stands in a window

Watches the river roll

Trains rumble in the
foreground

With the weight of approaching dawn 



Flames from
the refinery

Rise broken, red and riveting

And the high vault of
heaven

Looks far away and cold 



There's howling in the
factory yard

There's pounding in my head

I'm swollen up with unshed
tears

Bloated like the dead... 



(Instrumental break) 



Blood and ashes - time burning

On the skyline dark against the
stars

A solitary horseman - waiting 



Lashed to the wheel

Whipping into the storm

Get up, Jonah

It's your time to be born