Lightning struck the ferris wheel before my kids had gotten their chance...
Lightning struck the ferris wheel
Before my kids had gotten their chance
Lucky some said
Unlucky for the others
Some died. Many walked away
Some had burns, some were badly burned
The ride has been closed ever since
It stands bent, lonely and scarred
Peeling paint
When it storms, small morbid gangs
Gather underneath the straining metal, laying on their backs
Squinting up through the rain
With hopes of seeing the lightning strike
Or catch a glimpse of a half-burned ghost
It hasn’t happened yet
But it’s still an attraction
Although there is both a hazard sign and a bolted chain
I knew the parents of some of the unlucky kids who were burned
Life moved on and they’ve grown into new people, with scars and stories
One of those kids became a race car driver
His parents blame that night of the lightning
They told their friends their son tells the story over and over
Of how the lightning, thick as a river
Jumped down from the dark and swallowed the wheel whole
It felt like a hot wet blanket that could go on forever he said
Then it became cold and dark and the rain stung his skin, bad
But he wished it would happen again and never end
Somewhere, on a tight track, under the bright lights in a dirt road town
This kid feels that fire come up through his steering wheel
And he closes his eyes and sees that river of lighting and
The howling of the kids in the roar of his engine
The wind tears at his face as he presses the gas until his teeth hurt
And he laughs and laughs and laughs.