There's a prayer for the living and the dying,

There's a prayer to soothe the savage sea,

There's a prayer, it seems, for almost everything,

But you haven't got a prayer for me.

And I haven't got a prayer.

So many cries in the night that you try to ignore,

Why didn't I do that?

Why didn't I do this?

So many unbroken chains,

So many unsettled scores.

The old man at the bank that sneers,

The teachers and their slaps,

The brutal eyes, the uniforms,

The lawyers and their traps.

The lonely girls who yearn to love

And learn to kiss and dance,

The rich and selfish widows

In the market for romance.

The soldiers with the smell of war

That never fades away,

The heroes of the playing field,

Forgotten in a day.

The priest in the confessional,

All trembling hands and whispered sighs,

The doctors at the hospital,

Unending tests and twisted lies.

The betrayers, the betrayed,

The abandoned, the afraid,

The corrupted and the celebrated,

Endlessly humiliated,

Gloriously big parade.

You can say a prayer for everyone

That there could ever be,

Say a prayer for all of these and more,

But there's still no prayer for me.

Say a prayer for your purest daughter,

Toll a bell for your only son.

There's no way out and all my prayers are fading one by one.

The stern and disapproving lips,

The friends who just attack,

The fathers that they take away,

The ones that can't get back.

The desperate boy who sleeps alone,

Whoever's in his bed,

The chosen ones, they get a home,

The blessed get ahead.

The kids out playing softball

In the fading summer light.

The teenage lovers at the drive-in,

The glow of the dashboard light.

An American flier on a steep incline,

The wind blowing through your hair.

The trophies and the holidays,

They vanished in the air,

The betrayers, the betrayed,

The abandoned, the afraid,

The glorified, the idolised,

The bastards and their jealous eyes!

An amazingly big parade!

You can say a prayer for everyone

You’ve known or you might see,

Say a prayer for all of these and more,

But there's still no prayer for me.

Say a prayer for every living thing,

The unborn and deceased,

But I haven't got a prayer, I know,

That's the nature of the beast.

That's the nature of the beast.

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