The Residents - Shroud Of Flames

SHROUD OF FLAMES Sitting on a hillside Ominous and black A massive tank of petrol Bled beneath the tracks.  Seen as steaming smokestacks In a sea of fire, The engine nearly vanished Embraced by searing spires. The raging yellow river Branded like an iron As a scream betrayed The torment of a child. Along the railway bed A vast amount of oil Had waited for a flame To parboil, bake and broil. Engineer Pat Sexton and  Fireman Billy Young Saw the engine bathed in Incandescent tongues, Flames that licked and laughed And danced about and sung Causing every breath To scorch their livid lungs.  Sexton drove until  Roasting flesh and pain Forced evacuation Still his hands remained Fastened to the throttle,  As his flesh sustained Charcoal colored blisters Macerating him with pain. But language fails to tell The sorry state of those Trapped inside the coach Where flaming oil exposed Their callow bodies to A merciless inferno  Extending from their faces To the tips of torrid toes. Meanwhile, in the wake  Of the rushing pyre,  Victims rolled around In the snow like tires Desperate to escape  The philosophy of fire Making every moment mad, Malevolent and dire. Standing out like shadows Encircled by the snow Were two misshapen masses As black as Satan's soul. Recognized only by Fragments of their clothes Clinging to their limbless trunks Like the scent around a rose. The former Sadie B.,  Wife of Lewis Haynes,  Had only lived in wedlock Two years 'til her remains  Were recognized by nothing but The gold ring he located Near a shapeless relic Both beloved and ill fated.  Nearby lying like  A mockery of man, Another blackened corpse was The maiden, Miss Moran Sitting in an alabaster Drift as snowflakes danced Around her head and gently Landed on her hands. Other victims of  The flaming holocaust,  With gnarly nubs remaining From the limbs they lost Were randomly arranged Like ashes in the frost, Their silence speaking loudly Of insanity and loss. Conductor Townsend said Peering through a mask, Revealing nothing but  His eyeballs as he rasped: "Such a fire you never saw. It was an oil fire... AN OIL FIRE! Ain't nothin' but an oil fire makes such a hellish inferno! And there I was right in the middle of it... with that car echoin' with the screams of women and the howls of men as the train rushed into that flamin' abyss."