Night Train to Kolkata

Let us pretend that I am on a night train to Kolkata
Young, hot-headed, proud and tall.
Let us pretend that I am healthy, disease-free and moral.
Pretend that I believe
that no matter what, with clenched teeth and fist I will yield no quarter,
That I will never leave the city.

And for a second pretend that I believe that fingers should
shuffle between a pen and a trigger with equal elan.
That a matchstick is all I need to spark a revolution
That I will play a role when the colours change..

But take a look at what a picture the hands of time have painted.
Can you see me raising an invoice to the devil with a 40% discount?
And what this Faustian bargain has cost?
Old, meek,scared, diseased, bent, broken, beaten, lost...

Now I often pretend that I am on a night train to Kolkata...

But i still wont yield any quarter!