i see a fire in the distance mother
my love i see those rising flames
are those the sabbath candles glowing
no my love, but you will rest the same
i haven't seen you since the separation
i watched you pushed along by the
crowd
on the train you swore we'd stick
together
still i look for you even now

a million judenkinder, the dulling of the
stars
barefoot across the crystal nacht but we
can't get thru the bars
where are you now does heaven pay the
price
can the one who wipes your tears away
make faith from this ice

unbar the door for i must come in
the kingdom of memory, burrows of the 
night
i'm no survivor i was not yet born
but i'm drawn like a sacred rite
the past it belongs to you
frozen forever like that lone tattoo
silent before you i can be your tears
but i'm locked outside by six million years

your memories our shield, we will not
forget
we will not forget...
schreibt und forschreibt for us
we will not forget
to our hearts we'll clutch each name
we will not forget
 

Like pirates off your shores of waste
our kiss you can forget, a newborn
sense of smell and taste for things
you've never met
our nose no longer knows the heel of
give it more and give it faster
our pleasures still retain their feel for
honor is their master
three winds fill the sails of my sisters and
my brothers
race from beyond, scorn from behind,
and love for each other

God of all gods father of each holy one 
God of all gods father of each lowly one
God of all gods like a mother to the
orphaned ones
God of all gods wholly other to the broken
half of me

dim memory brings the shade of lesser
days around me
back before the waking, the time of my
founding
dark was the heart with but its own
desires
when a god will not be tamed, man will
serve a liar
from the shores I saw the sails of my
sisters and my brothers
left behind the old life, born into another

eighteen years upon these waves storm,
salt, and pounding
i wouldn't trade a minute of the seeing or
the doubting
alive i am in the teeth of faith, few
answers i have found
but the call that brought me back to life,
to it i am bound
three winds fill the sails of my sisters and
my brothers
grace from beyond, scorn from behind,
and love for each other

He holds in His strength every
innocent born stricken in body or
mind.  He forms the frame from the
weak and unwise which holds up the
land.  In only His eyes is the worth and
the truth of beauty defined at once
broken man and completely divine.

I wish to dwell in Your life.
I wish to be where You are.
I follow You from no fear of hell.
Alone it's gone so hard.
Alone I've gone so far.

The years can be erased till one by one
they fall.  Your tears had form and taste.
The Son of man is the Lord of us all.

In the end the revolution veers and
fades.  Power corrupts, no future is built
with tools of hate.
The march, the cause just another sham.
Everything rots in the hands of man.
Comrades get slim and few when they
don't meet up when they ain't you.

The red hands of reaction and a lack of
clarity caused by the disconnection of
belief from all reality brought on the clos-
ing of our minds to hope and purity and
left us hanging from our necks from a
bent society.

Politically completely free beyond all
authority, we'd still be draped in chains
called responsibility.
Bound, gagged, and tortured beyond all
amnesty a liberty no man can touch
brings on our release.

Try any point of view, what we are
remains.  Our choices and our paths are
fewer than they seem.
In the end the revolution veers and fades.
Only what's eternal will pass thru the
flames.

Take us away to a place of purity.  Does a 
love for people mean a lack of clarity
about what makes us clean and what
brings decay?  Lead us out of this bloody
night and show us your way.

Another armchair economist playing
our life into a mess, what you know
about poverty you learned in a 
book.  Think you're really qualified to
mouth off and theorize about the fears
you've never even felt.  Time's past to
button up, taste the fare on which they
sup and tighten your own belt.  Get in line
with us a while, see ya humbly watch
your child's health held in balance by the
whim of the system.

Between Cosette and the privileged few
A fat dog chokes down more than he can
chew
A poor land's labours are a rich land's gain
Little Oliver lives again

The red scare has come and gone, a
temporarily peaceful dawn finds us lost
without a villain.  When the free market
reigns supreme will Lazarus cheer and
scream or will the new bosses' wage be
the same?  What's it mean to buy and own
when all is God's and God's alone, does a
father feed half his children?  Our glory is
indeed our shame if our comfort breeds
on others' pain.  This feast would be
better if it wasn't so lonely.

Theologies of liberation formed by
mother's desperation, the church
condemns but offers little else.  Brother
sun and sister moon hear a starving
child's tune thanking God for all His
goodness.  Across the seas the bitter
mutter behind ivy walls and drawn
shutters they plot to keep their own.
Moths and worms around us gather, a
slow wrath descends a ladder.  Mercy
received in the measure it was given.

Holy Father we all want bread, both from
heaven and your fields so green.  I know
your grace is man's first need, but I can
no longer hold the pain I've seen.  I am my
brother's keeper and that I'll always be.  I'll
not turn my back be he stranger of blood
and embrace a life of greed.  I am
my sister's keeper and that I've always been.
Every day I've left her out in the streets
I've turned Christ out again.

Closed my eyes by a violent river filled
with thoughts that left me shiver
longed for a land to be delivered
where the young don't catch the ship
fair voice ran cross my ears
sadness drenched for many years
she'd had enough of the children's tears
their cries had reached the judgement
seat

i heard the banshee mark the day of the
death
of kings both strong and cruel
forgive me father if my eyes are dry
but i've seen too much of their rule

thought she dwelled only in stories
but there she stood on the green before
me
pale blue eyes and a terrible glory
of one who sees the end of thing
thru wars and workhouse she had
traveled
watched so many lives unraveled
held her breath upon the gavel
now would justice come at last

i saw the bansee in the houses of power 
she was beautiful beyond all belief
this time she came for the heartless killers
and no one found any grief

woke again with a sudden shiver
found a land still undelivered
thru myself in a violent river
and swam against the cursed pull
all our myths and dreams and longings
filled with tyrants' final fallings
gardens lost and echoes calling
adam, where are you?

i saw the banshee in the hands of my Lord
only mercy held her release
but nothing's forgotten and
nothing's overlooked
everything sowed is reaped
nothing's forgotten and
nothing's overlooked
the eye of God never sleeps

Ope your ears and up a seat for the
tale of the ballydowse.  just what
they are might well be you when
the tell reaches your house
between way past plenty and a need no
one should know
they were born and raised unsettled
within sight of high and low
equal blessings, hardhsips, toes, and
fingers, opened eyes returned and
lingered
to the ones who got picked last
to the dancers never asked
to the darkened half of the heart of man
that leaves his brother trapped

underbred and under way we are leaping to
the fray throwing for the lovely underdogs
underbrush and underbelly flags flying
willy-nilly we'll undermine the greedy and
the cruel.  come along all are welcome let
man's barriers be broken, from silver
spoons to empty pockets all
raise your glass and raise your voices ain't
against then be for us
no paradise we'll reap but we'll go down
plowing just the same

so you sat and heard the tell, if you're
leaving just as well
too many living on the fences as it is
but if your heart volunteers to the crying
and the cheers
let the dead bury the dead and come
along
equal blessing, hardships, crying, and
singing
you'll get back just like you're giving
to the ones who got picked last
to the dancers never asked
if you got ears then hear if you don't
forget we asked