New Virginia, Iowa, Home of the First Four-Wheel Drive Vehicle
A Chicago needle took her in the summer I pawned our shit and caught a bus out west I got off the Greyhound in a corn and cattle town Because the name recalled my mother's place of rest It seemed like a haven for clean Christian maidens Who'll love a man despite the holes he's made But the scourge arrived a decade before I did Provided by the trailer parade New Virginia, Iowa Virgin land apart from who I was New Virginia, Iowa Poisoned boys do as poison does Cornfields can't quite cover the bodies of our lovers Singing from the Cook County morgue I managed to bandage my memory of the damage With the sheets of the clerk from the store next door She had left the church when her cursing father left her in the lurch She told me sleep is for the old I met her friends tending bar when harvest ended So wide awake I couldn't feel the cold New Virginia, Iowa Virgin land apart from who I was New Virginia, Iowa Poisoned boys do as poison does For our sins we've got modern bathtub gin It's a long night, a long night to go And I know in the shack on Felton's curve I'll get, I'll get what I deserve Lord steady my nerves The lives we've led are never really dead Nor the psalms that set the bombs off in our heads By the time I'm clean this prairie will mean nothing to me I'll curse another place instead Whoah, it's a long night, a long night to go |