Mercy Bound - Joan Baez

Late last night I awoke in a dream

To the sound of a voice that was almost a scream

Oh oh oh

From out of the city and out of the street

Out where the wind hits the cold concrete

Oh oh oh

It’s cold outside

Darkness your enemy

No place to hide

The voice said this to me

In your doorways I have shivered

In your alleys I have gone to ground

But I will be delivered

Someday I will be mercy bound

I dreamed again it was west L. A

On a crowded street on a hot summer day

She was alone

Three months late and beginning to show

In a midriff blouse she would soon outgrow

She had no one to call

And no way home

And in my mind

I knew I’d seen myself

But in our blindness

It always seems like someone else

There I was a rag a bone

A remnant in your lost and found

I was for once truly alone

Longing to be mercy bound

And I knew that I would wander as child in the forest

Till they found me

And I called out to them but I could not penetrate the silence

All around me

And when I wake I know you’ll comfort me

And I won’t sleep again for an eternity

But others lie awake at night

In desperation more profound

And the coming of the morning light

Will not see them mercy bound

And some will never dream again

From sleeping on the ground

Just longing to belong

And dying to be mercy bound

Oh please don’t stop your dreaming

Someday we’ll all be mercy bound