The Wheel

The sailors have drifted away Each with a girl in his hand Wrapped in the ribbons of old Uncle Sam They danced to the sway of the band Oh I heard the engines arrive I saw the trains on the hill I saw millions of eyes in the chambers of sighs Oh I saw the gears of the wheel The bells are beginning to fade Oh friend won't you bring out your dead Freedom they cried to the faraway sky And parted the king from his head Oh emperors where are you now And where are the hearts that you steal? Lost like a lamb on the lone level sands Under the gears of the wheel Oh hero who falls to the sea Oh soldier who's shot where you stand Oh captain who drowns where your ship runs aground Oh farmer laid under your land Oh woman with child and with none Oh sage with your secrets revealed Oh come ye who labour from dusk unto dawn And rest in the gears of the wheel Oh you who have conquered the sun And tethered the moon to your side Do you remember the songs that you sang Under the African sky? For I am the wandering boy The girl with the wolves at her heel And I am the tree by the cold mountain stream Fed by the gears of the wheel Oh I am the forest of flies And I am the garden of gold Oh I am the ghosts of the voices long gone And I am the stories they told Oh I am the start and the end I am the dark, dreary dream I am the hand that will welcome you home Turning the gears of the wheel