And I was thinking …
“A man could walk a thousand miles with his tongue and never touch the ground.”

What the road is I have taken, you’ve taken it with me
It’s a poisoned path that we danced upon so quietly
I stop now to throw my daggers down and dwell
And hear the roaring in the assemblies of these halls
I notice at the peak of the startled faces
They all knew that nothing here replaces
Anything they ever knew or loved at all
Someone told me once that how it all unfolds
With life’s clowns and all the actors dancing by
Is intractably subject to the way it all began to be
By that I mean that road that we once started on
That road that brought me here and to your feet
In which I cast aside all my morals and drollery
Took that and placed it in the box of what could be
And hoped the dice would fall not far from me
So they did and yet now I sit assembled at this hall
Surrounded by my transgressions of the echoes’ call
Well no matter what pretext of this weakened foundation
I see from that road the fallen grace of my own offenses
Living still in the nightmares of every sleepless evening
Passing by them invariably with head hung in shame
And still each time I have to wave or say their name
I know that they will never understand as nor will I
The lies they fall all around me now and here I sit
Within the halls of sinners or those who poisoned be
In every step they took from there was another out of key
And then from the halls a man broadcasted loudly
Speaking to his audience in charming slanted subtlety

“Perhaps if I may have a moment of your time friends
To speak with you about morality and wisdom of the soul
About the paths the demons take to trick you into lies
They will force your hand and heart and dreams to bleed
For all it takes to destroy the tree is to plant a poisoned seed.”

And so the halls filled in silence and a mockery by all
The speaker was perplexed by the whole crowd’s bitter caw
Thinking they knew more than the speaker cared to quote
No one knew at all what he meant by all of that he wrote
Well so the patrons sat shaking fists at his failed attempt
To explain how their lives had failed and fallen to contempt

So he took another look around and sat down on the floor
Until someone finally stood to ask what he did sit down for?
He stared and smiled back at him and said “I’m glad you asked”
And stood again to look at him, slowly sliding on a mask
The mask was caked in berry die of purple, red and green
And the crowd began to laugh and point at this rather silly scene
Then he stepped three steps forward and began to move one back
As he motioned out to those around to look within his pack
They stood in silence quite confused and slowly sat back down
In disarray one man cried out, “speaker what do you mean to say?”
The speaker slid the mask back off and laid it by his feet
“My friends the pack is empty and the mask is always crude
I wish someday you would hear me without this hateful attitude
So I sit before you in your silence - and for you I will pray
That your souls are never like these things I’ve shown you here today.”