Mesmerine, she is so careless, she wears her crown so well In the housing project campus untouched through her porcelain shell Yes I knew her that way long ago, to her I bear no ill I know of none that would die for her but I know plenty who would kill To Mesmerine across the shore, I bid a fond goodbye Cuz you never ask for nothing when the devils prophesy The seat beside me vacant in plaid Napoleon’s lair I had to fill it up with magazines and pretend that I don’t care And Germany with her hair cut short and her youth a dawn away Asks me for some more advice like she does every day And I myself am raking dust in the calm before the cry Listening to photographs as the devils prophesy Deridder waits up on the docks blowing smoke rings in the air Writing questions in the water and dreaming of the one he left there Saint Peter on the barge approaching he wails a lonesome song Not knowing in his self-ascribed position that he’s singing it all wrong His seraphims sound trumpets and never wonder why Unknowingly playing the score for the devils’ prophesy J.D. Salinger in the dance hall, he wears his pain with grace He missed his prime some years ago and had to drop out of the race “Salud” he announces to no one taking a long pull from his drink Puts his head down in his arms as the room begins to sink Salinger he racks his body nightly with his rye But even drunk you can’t escape from when the devils prophesy Now Medea, she is weeping for time has passed in vain As Plutarch sits on the balcony out in the rain They share a common interest and discovered it too late Medea wails an apology even as she evaporates And Plutarch left behind, he hopes the memory soon will die But hope’s a useless venue when the devils prophesy

The world soon will alter so take one last look Before the scribes make a mark in their book And the prophecy's open to all who partook Of this time and its final sunset The peace that's been known will soon be replaced Foundations of life will soon be defaced With the passing of time, what's constant is replaced Why don't you welcome the final sunset The sun, it is falling, it soon will be night So take your last look, there won't be any sight You ask "will there be tomorrow, and will it be all right?" We shall see after the final sunset

Well old Ricky Lee wandered down the dark roads by himself He never looked back on his life, why there was nothing else A tired old man at the ripe old age of 26 His home is the alley, his friend, the bourbon that he drinks He's come a long long way, he's come a long long way Yes he's come a long long way, my old pal Ricky Lee There once was a time when his future did not look so bad When his life wasn't based on the pocket change that he had A gambler at best and a loser to anyone's eye His lone occupation to save for his next shot of rye He's come a long long way, he's come a long long way Yes he's come a long long way, my old pal Ricky Lee He blames it on women, he blames it on society He blames it on government's lack of blind piety He blames it on Jesus and blames everyone through his tears Though he still never blamed anything on the one in the mirror He's come a long long way, he's come a long long way Yes he's come a long long way, my old pal Ricky Lee The last time I saw him, I gave him a twenty to save In spite of myself, I still feel there's more I could've gave I hear of a drunkard who begs on Expressway and D And I can't help but wonder if it's my old pal Ricky Lee He's come a long long way, he's come a long long way Yes he's come a long long way, my old pal Ricky Lee He's come a long long way, he's come a long long way Yes he's come a long long way, my old pal Ricky Lee

On a cold and damp November night I tread old dirt roads to that pale moonlight I saw a shadow in the glare of a sign From the dusted pathways in back of my mind From the cracked stone stairs to the light in her room I followed my eyes by the halo of the moon And through the blinds, though drawn as they were Of her window I could barely catch a glimpse of her An engine cut off and a door did slam In the distance I caught vision of a young man I sat by the base of an old weathered tree Away from her window where the shadows covered me For near an hour with my ears open wide Listening to the laughter coming from inside Echoing long and for many a day I stood up afterward and I went on my way I walk alone by the river late at night Whistling false happiness and trying to feel all right Pretending that nothing sits inside my mind Pretending that there's no more peace that I should find My thoughts and dreams still drift to that room How it looks now, I can only assume And how soft the bed that sits within Yes, I dream it and I think it, but I’ll never know again

Will you say hello for me? Will you tell me if he smiles? Yes, sweet girl, I’ll do what you ask I’ll be back in just a while What did he say what did he do? Was my interest all in vain? Yes, sweet girl, I’m sorry, I’ll protect you from the rain Will you take a walk with me? I’d like your company Anything you ask, sweet girl, is fine it’s fine with me Will you take a walk with me? I’d like your company Anything you ask, sweet girl, is fine it’s fine with me I met a man, oh yes, I did, I think I am in love That’s wonderful, sweet girl, to see your heart so high above He’s gone away, he’s gone away, I think that I may die Calm down, sweet girl, he still loves you, he’ll be back in two July’s Will you kiss me softly? Will you hold me close to you? Yes, sweet girl, it’s what I always hoped that I could do Will you kiss me softly? Will you hold me close to you? Yes, sweet girl, it’s what I always hoped that I could do Will you now forget me? Will you let me fly away? If what you ask will make you happy, I’d do it yesterday Will you now forget me? Will you let me fly away? If what you ask will make you happy, I’d do it yesterday

Ain’t got no more time, ain’t got nothin to do Ain’t got no more time to waste on you Ain’t got no mind to be paying to you As broke as my wallet is, that’s how broke I am for you too Ain’t got no time for you, ain’t got no time for you Ain’t got no time for you baby, said I ain’t got no time for you I spent my last quarter, I spent my last dime Tryin to get away from you, gettin drunk all the time I'll spend my last dollar, spend my last nickel too I’ll spend all sorts of money I ain’t even got if it means I can stay away from you St. Peter heard me callin, he said "What you got your business here for?" I said, "Can you hide me in there? As long as you don’t let her through your door"

I don't know what the world's view is, I don't wanna know History proves itself right and wrong, it's such vertigo All false prophets and philosophers fill up the masses with meaningless words I can't explain and, no, I can't complain for insanity Even today when a phrase can't be without profanity Just looking on with millions in pain, playing your lute while your city's in flames What's the difference and what does it mean to the two of us No matter what we say it will go on in lieu of us I ain't no messenger sent from above, all I can do is ask where is the love War and peace and war once again it's forevermore Plumes of threatening breakers of fear crash back on our shore Trust is illusion, illusion departs, even one's friend can be Brutus at heart Allied together we fall at the feet of catastrophe Snowball effect, assassination turns to mobility We win the battles again and again but do our mirrors frame pictures of men?

I finally learned my lesson I've been wasting all my time and energy in pursuit of a thing called love I been trapped in that realm of questions I can never understand And I'm breaking from it now, I've had enough But now that I don't want it anymore, love will come looking for me I look toward all my friends and see their problems multiply Because they got so much more than they bargained for And next thing that I know they’re wearing tuxes Stepping down the aisle and shoving their independence out the door Just cuz they didn't want it anymore, love went looking for them I'll never make the mistakes I made before I'm tempting fate, better knock the door It's made of wood, you know what I'm saying My telephone is ringing so I pick it up, I say hello It's Lauren so I guess here we go again You see, I didn't want it anymore so love came looking for me And I guess it found me

Old man Barry walks with a cane, drinking the water straight from the drain Asks for directions for out of his brain, drops his scarf on the Arkansas plain Asking for the answer, looking for the key Don’t matter any, you still just see what you want to see Jim stopped by Mona’s where he once lived before Grew his hair long, Mona said "I don’t know you no more" Jim went to pieces right there at the door Mona said "When you’re done, could you please clean your tears off my floor" Asking for the answer, looking for the key Don’t matter any, you still just see what you want to see The camel to the horse asked where the water was Said the horse to the camel "Why don't you tell me what that hump does?" Choked the camel to the horse "Why?" The horse said "Because, I always wanted to see a camel choke on mud and sand and dust" Asking for the answer, looking for the key Don’t matter any, you still just see what you want to see

There’s a dark wind a-blowin ‘cross the Lou’siana plain There’s a fire in the night that shot up its last flame ‘Neath the deep south sky, two people on the lane Got nuthin’ ‘tween the two of ‘em, not even half a brain There’s a windstorm a-comin from the far Atlantic coast There’s a change a-comin too, makin what’s the least the most Tossin back an forth all the secrets they could host The look a’ horror on ‘em, you would swear they seen a ghost There’s a lone clock a-soundin and a-mockin with its bell There’s a candle burnin slowly in a midnight prison cell There’s a cold an granite marker where the unknown mighty fell There’s a dark wind a blowin straight from the depths of hell

Through the bread line by and by, impotent they wail a silent cry Unheeded by those for whom they’ll die For them the corporate ladder’s first rung too high In the blue collar strait jacket where they lie Herded like pigs in some tax bracket sty Down to the point where the ground is the sky And they dream it and dream it but can’t even try Neglected by all when they dare to ask why Ridiculed and poked for each audible sigh Oh, a siren carries one off to rest A prayer makes one to feel more blessed For the blood that’s running through his chest For the false hopes of one day being the best Tossed in the waves below poverty’s crest And poverty welcomes them all as his guests Drawn to the edge by society’s test And the failures go on to join all the rest Holding their children close to their breast Tryin to keep off the cold in their glorified nest Where the rats and the cockroaches constantly infest The crumbs in the pantry and the holes in the vests The dregs of the bread line they are The dregs of the bread line they are An echo of false security pounds the ears of the secretary Who knows not of her replaceability, how quick it will come and how easily Ignorantly being the best she can be Though to leave it still appeals most enticingly Yet she eats it and breathes it in mass quantity Living for lunch breaks most impatiently The walls and the telephone’s are all that she’ll see In her retirement home in her shot memory The overtime clock like a siren run free To pay the apartment on Avenue E which she only stays in long enough for to sleep Oh, a paycheck keeps their mouths glued shut As they toil and sweat and push through the rut To fill up their pockets and fill up their gut To accept it as gospel and never ask what Pasted and ground far down in the glut Alive in appearance but dead in the flood of the altars of Wall Street screaming for blood Smashed in the ground like a cigarette butt Strives but predestined to not make the cut Collection of corporation bolts and nuts Yes, the dregs of the bread line they are Yes, the dregs of the bread line they are In the executive board room they smoke their cigars Arriving clean shaven in new model cars And speak in a language of figures and charts And glorify their status from the common so far Every day thanking their lucky stars that they’re not the dregs that work in the tar Laughing and drinking their drinks at the bar Oh, the pen stroke signs as a cardinal law The layoff sheet grows as the landscape grows raw And the managers grin with a sneer on their jaw Making profits from tragedies nobody saw The ship of the trodden pitches and yaws As the ravens above them cackle and caw The dregs of the bread line they are The dregs of the bread line they are Now the man on the road travels many a mile With bags for his blankets and his bed a trash pile Scraping for food for a day’s survival The dogs and the rats being his only rivals For the space ‘neath the dumpster that he’ll stay for a while 'Fore he goes walking to beg like a four year old child And he’s known to nobody ‘cept the news report’s file Which the governor uses for public funding's arrival That he spends toward his reelection campaign using guile And the man on the road who forgot how to smile Torn up and forgotten from society’s trials Oh, and society mocks him and says with a sneer Don’t be like him children, don’t even go near And he drifts through existence and to few it is clear That the hero of the bread line he is That the hero of the bread line he is