Paradise Lost

Up on a ridge is a nice place to be
The trains pass by in the mining country
Time marches on and the old saloon
Was joined by houses and shops and then pretty soon
An old mining outpost, an old timber mill
Became a small city as a town will
But it’s a town in the west and it’s 2018
An age of drought and of fire and things unforeseen
You just throw the dice and see how they get tossed
This time, Paradise lost

The fire was started and all the dead brush
Went up in flames in a terrible rush
Thousands of homes soon were on fire
Along with the cars, the roads and the tires
Melted and charred with bodies inside
Of the scores or the hundreds of people who died
You can talk about forests, but all that you need
Is the dead grass that grows from the grass seed
In this age of tornadoes and firelines crossed
And places like Paradise lost

If you don’t get gunned down then you can be burned
Is that the lesson we’re supposed to have learned
Either way it makes sense, it’s the logical end
For a system that’s based on how much money you spend
Divert the rivers, sell real estate
Until early one morning we find it’s too late
As the townspeople woke or slept in their beds
And the skies above them turned suddenly red
Soon a graveyard will mark out the terrible cost
Of the day that left Paradise lost