Truly
Fri 27 Mar 2009 by mskala Tags used: poetryWhere have ye been all the day, fair son of mine?
Where gat ye your dinner this long lonely while?
I did eat with my sweetheart, who put me on trial
I was flogged for my crimes and all covered with bruises
They were red and white and they were green and yellow
(Oh, Greens and yellows who said I could make my bed soon!
Seven years, if you want to know.
Seven years a stick in the mud and a tongue
Never in the warning bell.
Never but dry
And bitter as ashes.)
I pledged every penny and the balance kept growing
I was sick to my heart and I had to lie down
With my feet in the icebox and my head in the oven
Let me go, Daddy, let me go
Mother, tell me truly:
Is this what you made me for?
Where did you ride, young man of ours?
What did you see on this fine Sunday morn?
Well, I rode a white horse with a long twisted horn
Past an old wooden church that was going down in flames
And I met a young girl all dressed up as a nun
And I saw that the host lay unburnt in the ashes
She had dirty knees and a dirtier mouth
And she swallowed my error but gave no absolution
Let me go, Sister, let me go
Father, tell me truly:
Is this what you made me for?
How far did you look with your near-sighted eyes?
What did you say on the toll-free call?
Well, the star was so heavy I couldn't see it at all
I saw seven billion planets all burning with fission
There was a great war and they launched all the missiles
Along each epicycle they would take back the darkness
And I drank the green tea and I read the pink posters
And I joined up in that army for a seven-year tour of duty
We had dreadnoughts and rifles and tanks but no guns
We had martyrs and victims and glory but no heroes
Killed murderers and rapists and deadbeats and others
I took fourteen times fourteen and I said that was fair
Of our sons and their sons to the tenth generation
And I put an end to war that way
Enemy mine, let me go, let me go
My love, tell me:
Is this truly what you made me for?
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