The Blasting Days

Do they frighten you with talk
They like to talk about a better life
<i>I reach for the lantern and
Carry myself from the train</i>
Or is it their poise
Like the feel of technology
<i>Hand to the tunnel wall
I felt the truth in the clay</i>
We'll look for a shooting star
Through the window they allow me
<i>Song of the tunnelmen
Workingmen stomaching heat</i>
There's a twisting to life
When they treat you post traumatically
<i>We built a cross on the morning
They brought the machine</i>
It must have surprised you
<i>(Chorus)</i>
Will we be capable
Of style and grace anymore?
Will it ever be how it was
When we hammered through
The blasting days?
And I can't help wondering
If they'd be so kind
<i>Moving like sparks
Set the will of the dynamite free</i>
So kind as to say hey
To the boys on the line
<i>Lifting the solid earth
Sensing the tide underneath</i>
Wouldn't that surprise you
<i>(Chorus)</i>
Will we be capable
Of style and grace anymore?
Will it ever be how it was
Like the blasting days
Back at Big Bend?
I guess they're hoping that
Soon we will tell
That we were there
When the greatest of all
Hammers would fall no more
But they'd never understand
How it was when the future
Came of a sudden
To the blasting days
<i>Hand to the tunnel wall
Come feel the truth in clay</i>