A Man Needs A Vocation lyrics

The trip was pretty bleak
But it was cheaper than the train
Disembarked during a summer storm
Got hammered by the rain
As he hobbled down the frontage road
With a footlocker and in a fair amount of pain

From a payphone at a the station
He called on some old friends
And a guy that he'd played football with
Said he could take him in
On a blanket on a mattress
In the basement by the furnace
He was home again

But he'd been gone for long enough that
Something wasn't lining up
This distance didn't exist before
The plexiglass at liquor stores
The wretches in the parking lots
The torches in the smoking shops
Everything felt twice as hot to him

Started ringing up the register
At a Sinclair down the street
Started saving up and bought a truck
Started sleeping in the backseat
In the morning when he wakes up
There's a pamphlet on the windshield
With a cartoon of a shepherd
Tending to some cartoon sheep
Said we'll walk you through the paperwork
The course takes twenty weeks
With a military discount
The divinity comes cheaply and discreetly

In classrooms in an office park
Fluorescent lights against the dark
Long rows of unsteady desks
He memorized the sacred texts
That earned him the certificate
That led him to a place to live
And though he didn't believe in it
He was quite convinced
A man needs a vocation

So he drove out to Fishersville
Without saying goodbye
There was never really anything to say
'Cause the guys that he played football with
Were all starting to die
And it still felt pretty pointless when he prayed

He'd been there for long enough
To know the savior won't show up
The distance between everything
And Daniel back in Washington
The way it hung above his head
The wretches in the tanning beds
Turning up the torch again
Virginia with your rolling hills
The cities with their easy thrills
The clinics with their sliding scales
Scratching out prescriptions
They said you can't help somebody else
Until you take care of yourself
He never really fell for it
But he was quite convinced
A man needs a vocation