raised on words like punishment and god will get you if you don t do what you re told nuns turned children into fearful right handed little servants of the lord and then the atom bomb fell down on hiroshima north dakota the year she turned sixteen and she said there is something very wrong here do you know what i mean do you know what i mean cause i got visions forming in my head and i keep hearing what the preacher said said this world will be the death of me i know it will it s bound to be bound to be satchel full of broken hopes and empty picture postcards that she d never send her mama sitting on the front porch step daddy frowning in the darkened doorway waving his regret then she was jumping on the santa fe summer night in 1947 bound for god knew where and she said i can see destruction fast approaching i feel it in the air i feel it in the air and i got visions forming in my head and i keep hearing what the preacher said said this world will be the death of me i know it will it s bound to be on a road in valparaiso she met a hobo named old john they hunkered down in a gazebo and chose a star to gaze upon old john said he could see her slipping and he asked her what was wrong she said the rope i had been gripping turned to sand and now it s gone now it s gone can t you see the writing on the blood soaked blue horizon plain as vj day hear the barking of the drowning dogs frozen like so many eisenhower statues in pompei i think i ll take another taste old john to numb my heart god knows i m falling fast as atoms through the sky she said this world it sure ain t no place to live in but it ain t no place to die no it ain t no place to die 