The scorched earth of the Land of the Damned, where the only
signs of life are the vile, stinking, putrid and ever-flowing River of Ashes and
the few hopeless souls along it: two emaciated cowboys panning the ash and one
impossibly old scientist doing experiments between them.
ALL
River run
River flow
Where old dreams and nightmares go
River run
River roll
Open sewer of the soul
River run
River ooze
All the hopes we had to lose
River run
River flow
Nowhere else for us to go
COWBOY ONE
Your first love saying yes
Your heart never knowing pain
COWBOY TWO
All the glamour and the gold
All the riches! All the fame!
SCIENTIST
Cures for all the silent killers
Bubbling deep inside your brain
DREDGER (head popping out of the river)
Any flickering of hope
Let me feel alive again!
ALL
River run!
River flow!
Where he brought our dreams to go!
River run!
River roll!
By the man without a soul!
COWBOY ONE
I am a damned and tortured man
Awake some forty years
Gargoyle to this endless stream
Of others’ hopes and fears
One day when I wasn’t looking
A guess when I can’t give
I turned my back and something stole
My sole reason to live
So now I pan this dusty dreck
To find a glinting light
A crystal glinting, bobbing in
This flow of darkest night
COWBOY TWO
I once dreamt of endless glory
Transcending even time!
All the wealth in all the world
It one day would be mine
But the darkness of despair
I let creep too far
And one by one from my night sky
The darkness stole my stars
Sifting shadows ever since
And still not found a gem
The merest flicker of a hope
To let me dream again
DREDGER
This river runs so dark with all
The ash of useless dreams
Burnt down by a quiet man
His ears deaf to our screams
The dreams and hopes that you don’t need
He’ll calmly sweep away
And us, the hopeless, search the ruins
For hope that’s gone astray
A tiny glinting gem of something
Hardened by the flames
Dazzling visions letting the dreamless
Begin to dream again
SCIENTIST (adding ash into a beaker)
A pinch of broken promise
A drop of held-back tear
The ticking of the clock that says
Your test results are here
Essence of the watching eyes
That see you through the cracks
That certain sort of sweat when you
Forget to pay your tax
Mix over a gentle heat
This hubble-bubble stew
Until you form the fabled gem to
Make you feel anew
A small explosion from the beaker. They all look.
SCIENTIST (grandly)
Bugger!
A lorry reverses up to the edge of the river.
COWBOY ONE and COWBOY TWO
The Sweeper!
DREDGER and SCIENTIST
The Sweeper!
ALL BUT THE SWEEPER
The Sweeper of Dreams!
The Sweeper of Dreams enters.
SWEEPER
Yeah, y’alright?
COWBOY ONE
Thank God you’re here!
COWBOY TWO
Yes, thank all the gods!
SWEEPER
Shut all your noiseholes, all gods are sods!
But I’m the only S.O.D.
ALL BUT THE SWEEPER
The Sweeper of Dreams!
SWEEPER
Shutup, you sycophants!
The Sweeper empties a whole lorryload more ashes into the
river.
COWBOY ONE
More ruinous ruins!
COWBOY TWO
What dreams we might find!
SCIENTIST
We’ve not a found a thing!
DREDGER
I’m losing my mind!
COWBOY ONE
We’d all almost given up hope we’d find hope
COWBOY TWO
Starting to wonder how we were to cope!
SCIENTIST
My bones are so tired
My patience stretched thin
DREDGER
We’ve tried every way
To do ourselves in!
ALL BUT SWEEPER
Oh Sweep like sheep last night
We dreamt you’d come!
So many false visions - !
The Sweeper is not there.
ALL BUT SWEEPER
And you were just one
COWBOY ONE
He might find us one day
COWBOY TWO
Never know
SCIENTIST
On we go
DREDGER
So!
ALL
River run
River flow
Where old dreams and nightmares go
River run
River roll
Open sewer of the soul
River run
River ooze
All the hopes we had to lose
River run
River flow
Nowhere else for us to go
