Under the Wall

To play the game, to dance the tune,
To give up for a ghastly boon
The sweetness of the soul which wore
The lineaments of dread before.

They smile yet cannot feel, their hearts
Replaced with facts and trading-charts,
And in their brains, where once was joy,
There's avarice and things that cloy.

They're lied to, they're deceived each day,
They live as though it's fair to say,
'You've but one life, now sell these jeans,
You need not know what all this means.'

And then they wonder why it seems
Mankind today pines, weeps and dreams
But that some facile love should bloom
Out of quick fame, to kill the gloom.

For nothing changes, days pass by,
The promises rotate, things die,
And everywhere, in every face,
Woe rankles in a silent place.

We're chasing will-o-wisps, one fades
And five more come - out in the glades
Of purposeless ambition, where
The dullest soul seems the most fair.

The dome of life explodes, glass falls,
Blood flows in crimson waterfalls,
And finally the cheated see
The smiling face of Trickery.

They've come for me, they've come to take
The only thing they could not break,
You must not let them call again -
Wake up! Wake up, and break the chain!