::Hello-Echo::

Disclaimer: See below, the fine print.

A/N: I don't know where this came from, I don't know why it's here. I just know that I put myself in the perspective of someone who lost faith and lost life, and is broken. A whirlwind emotional for me, this one was.

*

Hello - echo, echo - Hello.
Can you hear the vibrations
In the air? I could swear
There was someone standing
There. Waiting forever, still
A stone statue. And I think
"Emotion has brought the brink
Of destruction to me." And I hate,
And the strands of my fate
Twine, wondering, around each
Sin that I hold within and teaches me...
Seven, seven, seven, one, two,
Three, four, five, six and seven.

One for the person who I left
Cold and dead on the floor bereft
Of life. Anger. Another for
The one that I deplore,
The one I want to be. Envy.
One for the man that I can't
Have, and the woman I shan't
Love. Lust. Fourth, for the ego
That I give rise to, as though
I loved no other. Pride. And
The one that I can't-stop-my-need
Inside, is the flower of my Greed.
One for the will that hides inside,
Unmoving, dead and morbid.
Sloth. The last, large and torpid,
Vapid, massive, more. Gluttony.

Love me do, but hate
Me more, I ask, implore:
Love my body, burn my
Soul, reveal the real
Sin in this hole where
My heart used to sing
Sweet loves songs.
In this whole where
There used to be something
For you, for me, for
My eternity
In heaven's last embrace,
For gentle wings that brush my face,
For angels soaring high and for
The Love that cannot die.

Hate me do, and love
Me less, for Faith that
All ye put in me, sing:
Thou art holier, thou art
The centre of my broken
Heart.
Hate me do, and love
Me less, for Hope that
Lived forever blessed.
Sing! Songs of light,
Chant songs of blight:
As of broken angels
Fallen from
Flight.
Hate me do, and love
Me less, for Charity that
Gave my grave a
Blessing made of shards
Of glass from churches with
Broken windows, shattered pews,
A silent prayer which I
Refuse.
Hate me do, and love
Me less, for Fortitude which
Made you strong. So long
Dear friend, lover, whore,
So long and hate me forever-
More.
Hate me do, and love
Me less, for Justice that
Undoes the theft of Good by
Evil shod in the "Should-
Have-Been"s and the "Could-
Have-Been"s and the lies
That wail while the pastor
Dies.
Hate me do, and love
Me less, for Temperance which
Reins the pain in and
Masters the self and puts
Misery on the proverbial shelf;
Where the heavenly host
Raises the heavenly toast to
The goodness which heaven proudly
Boasts.
Hate me do, and love
Me less, for Prudence that
Chanced upon the beggar in
The street, who saw but refused
To be let seen, who was but
Who had never
Been.

Sing! For the chorus of the night
And sing! For the lusts of wrong delight
And sing! For the dirt and dust and hurt
That sings for the heart that broke and
Sings for the soul that stokes the
Fire of the invisible liar on the stands of truth
And sings for the lyre of the bard that
Chants for the dead, dead friar
Who lived for the good and the beat
Of soft wings, even as the murderer
Took his things and danced madly on
The streets that night before he killed
Another and took his flight.
So sing! For the hypocrites whom
Your glove fits; for the critics whose
Specific aim in life is to maim that which
Cannot be maintained and sing! For
Innocence lost, not gained, for the sex
On the street which is most profane,
And sing! for the songs that were sung which
Revelled in the gore that they saw before they
Bit into the meat of passion's soft heat. Hah,
Sing! Sing your songs! Sing along! Sing
Let the tolling bells ring, ring, ring!
Like the funeral that cling, cling, clings
To life that is past, past, past
To each life that will never last, last.
Last night I looked out of my window and
Saw a man standing outside my door
He took out a gun and stood by the shed
And there he pulled the trigger and blew off
His head. And the day before I saw a girl stand
Outside a window across the block, on Christmas
Eve she undid the lock and flung herself out to
The sky, it is a pity she could not fly. So yester
Eve on Christmas Day, I saw more lives flee quick!
Away! They sank beneath the broken coffin and nail,
Looking for a devil over whom evil prevailed
But all they found were the roots and soil and the
Core of the earth which continues to boil.

But I live on the street number six-six-six,
And next door is a woman who lives on a fix
Of heroine and cocaine, each which blows up
Her brain, but only two days ago she gave a
Beggar some cash, fifty dollars of green,
More than the beggar had seen ever before
And she opened up her door and let him in
Where for the first time in his life, the man
Picked up a knife and bit into food that was not
Cold or growing mould. And another man
Not too far from here, just three days from this
Moment gave up his house, his car. He left
His newly sold door ajar and left to join an
Order where they had to chant their hymns
From a broken tape recorder. He gave them
All his ill-gotten gains and flushed
All his drugs down the proverbial drain.

Hello - echo, echo, echo, echo
The word goes unheard and - Hello-
Hello-Hello- I want to run and hide
And bide my time - HELLO- Hello-
Hello - before I desecrate the world
With my hate - HELLO, please, I'm
BEGGING YOU OPEN YOUR
Mind - to my pleading, because
I think I left that world BEHIND
YOU CLOSE THE DOOR
Shut it and don't let the monsters
In because they cause a din and
THEY FRIGHTEN ME witless
With no-one as my witness I plead
HEAR ME, PLEASE! Hello-hello-
Echo, echo, for CURTAIN CALL
The stage is dark, where will I go
To sleep tonight? The stars shine
COLD AND BRIGHT and untouch-
Able, untouchable, far, so far, away,
Please, stay, stay, don't go to the
ECHO, ECHO, don't go to the LIGHT,
It's so very bright that it burns me
Inside though I try-to-run-and-hide,
ECHO, ECHO, I don't see any wings,
I don't hear any beating of heavenly
Things. I can't hear any harps telling
Me it's all right, I don't have a hand
That tucks me in at night. I can't see
Anything besides clouds and rain,
And I don't want to live this life
All over again. RUN and hide,
RUN away from me, BIDE
Your time, GOODBYE, while I sing
My sweet lullaby, I promise that I
Won't LIE to you, poor baby,
I'm here, to hold ONTO you,
To love you forever, don't LEAVE
Me here. Here's a matchstick for
You let the FLAME leap up, up, up
And sip from this jewelled cup,
Go to sleep, go to sleep, go...
Echo, echo, echo.