The Day It Fell Apart

The Day it Fell Apart

from the album,
FIRESTORM- Songs of the Third World War

Just a little general hospital
in a little factory town,
the board put me in charge
for mainly keeping prices down-
I hadn't touched a patient
since nineteen eighty-two
but the day of the explosion
I remembered what to do.

At elevin in the morning
we all heard the factory blow.
The blast took out the windows
and the shrapnel fell like snow.
We could get no help from out of town
for half a day or more.
We had near a thousand casualties
and beds for ninty-four.

And can you keep your head
your backbone or your heart?
We all found out the answer
on the day it fell apart.

It was worse than combat medicine.
Supplys were draining fast.
Bandages ran out
and anaseptics wouldn't last.
I took all the able-bodied
I could catch inside the door
and made the help the doctors
or go scrounge supplys and more.

I invented laws to tell them
saying "...In such emergency"
"Forget your usual job and boss,
Your orders come from me."
I sent the cops to comendere
anything in reach.
Food or disinfectant, cloth
or alcohol or bleach.

And can you keep your head
your backbone or your heart?
We all found out the answer
on the day it fell apart.

The janitor ran cleanup squad
the cook maintained supplies,
the garbage man removed the ones
who died before our eyes.
The clerks burned all our papers
to boil water on the fire
for steralizing instruments
as the body count went higher.

A local health food hearbalist
brought everything he had.
The pain killers were usefull
and the poltices wern't bad.
A smack and cocane pusher
handed us his whole supply.
The quality was lousy
but a few more didn't die.

And can you keep your head
your backbone or your heart?
We all found out the answer
on the day it fell apart.

We did treoj in the parking lot
ranked minor; major; grave.
A sad-eyed fireman gave the stroke
to those we couldn't save
then sometime in the caos
a director wandered in
to tell us we were breaking rules-
what trouble we'd be in.

But if we'd sware the factory
was not the fire's cause
and the harm was accidental
he'd forget the broken laws.
The staff sneaked up and grabbed him
and tied him to a door.
He gave them blood transfusions
till he hadn't any more.

And can you keep your head
your backbone or your heart?
We all found out the answer
on the day it fell apart.

When that day was over
and we'd saved all that we could
we saw that law and politics
would hang us where we stood.
We'd saved eight hundred lives
but shattered all authority.
I told them, "People, save yourselves-
Put all the blame on me."

I took my books and instruments
and a few supplys beside
and packed my car and ran away
to open countryside.
So now I live an outlaw,
condemned by rightous men.
But for all the lives I saved that day
I'd do it all again.

And can you keep your head
your backbone or your heart?
We all found out the answer
on the day it fell apart.

Can you keep your head
your backbone or your heart?
You'll all find out the answers
on the day it falls apart.