Slow Train

[VERSE 1]
I got on at Blood on the Tracks
Midwinter, mid-thirties, suitcase cracked
Tangled Up in Blue seats, torn upholstery
Every love’s a wound if you tell it closely

He’s beside me, hat pulled low
Says names don’t matter, then says his does
Talks in riddles, coughs up smoke
Says truth is just a different joke

[PRE-CHORUS]
I ask him straight, he laughs and stalls
Says “I contain multitudes” then denies it all

[CHORUS]
First rule of Bob D
You don’t explain Bobby D
Second rule, you change the tune
Right when they start to listen
I’m riding shotgun with a ghost and a grin
Trying to work out where belief begins
Slow train coming, fast blood drying
Am I watching history
Or am I next in line?

[VERSE 2]
He says Desire’s just a mask
Scarlet bandana, rolling cast
Hurricane stories, violin crime
Truth bends better when it rhymes

Street-Legal sermons, horns too loud
Choir creeping in from the crowd
I say “Is this where faith kicks in?”
He says “Kid, faith is a different skin”

[PRE-CHORUS]
He points ahead, track starts to glow
Says “You don’t find God — He boards you slow”

[CHORUS]
First rule of B. D.
Never trust the phase
Third rule, burn the map
Fourth rule, praise and blame
Blood on the tracks, then a ticket stub
From heartbreak hotel to the Book of Job
Slow Train Coming, no return fare
I don’t know if I’m following
Or already there

[BRIDGE – UNRELIABLE NARRATOR]
Maybe he’s real
Maybe he’s me
Maybe I read him into history
Charlemagne with a harmonica crown
Founding empires, burning them down

He says “Saved isn’t irony”
I say “Neither is Shot of Love”
He says “You want sincerity?”
I say “Yeah — but not enough”

[BREAK]
The train won’t stop
The questions stack
Every answer changes the track

[VERSE 3]
He quotes scripture, then quotes himself
Leaves both unlabeled on the shelf
I say “Did you mean it?”
He says “At the time”
Which feels like truth
Or feels like a crime

I check my reflection in the window glass
See Eli Mercer wearing someone else’s past
If he could pivot, vanish, return
What’s the lesson I’m meant to learn?

[FINAL CHORUS]
First rule of influence
You swear you’re not influenced
Second rule, deny the debt
While you’re counting interest
Blood on the tracks, slow train hum
Faith or fracture, here it comes
He tips his hat, says “You’ll be fine”
Leaves me alone
With a voice that sounds like mine

[OUTRO]
Train keeps rolling
Names decay
History’s just a long delay
If Dylan’s Charlemagne, what am I then?
Another passenger
Learning when