What evil star burns bright my old flame
And wilted my rose of Jericho
Whose glare killed the prayer last parted from her lips
And lit the path to churchyards untold?
The pitter and the patter of her dance once whirled away
The eve like a dream of youthful bloom
But now the iron clatter of my godforsaken woe
Echoes ancient tones of shackled doom

I’ll ride this Agony Wagon
Forever to Heaven or to Hell
I’ll ride this agony wagon
My bones are damned to roam these rusty rails
(2x)

What unholy haint rakes the Devil’s lyre
And dumbs the din of joybells in my soul
Who in silent gloom arrives snapping thicket underfoot
In moonless mist to light my carriage coals?
So into the shady dank of St. Jude’s garden stairs
East of the sun and west of the moon
Where her secret crypt of nightshade is shut inside his mind
Locked tighter than a toddler in a tomb.

I’ll ride this Agony Wagon
Forever to Heaven or to Hell
I’ll ride this agony wagon
My bones are damned to roam these rusty rails