XIII. Death

the prophets, playing it safe these days,
remind us we must die
we are enjoined to change our ways
change as good as a rest in peace
life as we’ve known it soon would cease
we’d rather set the world ablaze
than usurpers dignify

We count the cards in the hand we’re dealt by life
We’ll feel secure when we secure another’s strife

the youth who wait to take a seat
will follow suit we pray
we don’t like to be seen to cheat
with trumps collected in our sleeves
safe there from imagined thieves
we suffer worse things than deceit
from a world that’s gone astray

0. The Fool

trick after trick we’re taken again
the basics of living are rendered arcane
shadowy dealers continue their reign
trick after trick we are taken again
to speak truth to power we may call upon a fool
but be left with no more than a sorry excuse
while the fetters that bind us fail to unloose
while daily malignance proceeds to unspool
from continued sorrow we’re left to deduce
to speak truth to power we have called on a fool

XVI. The Tower

this place was a prison a short time ago
with a tower overlooking the yard
a thunderbolt shattered the structures that held us
no longer is our exit barred
but the flash of the lightning has burnt on our brains
our lost tower haloed in remembered powers
we dream of reshackling ourselves to the past
so life in the tower might finally be ours

13b. Death (reprise)

decayed patricians lie in state
their rule we won't discard
from days the great were truly great
folk today rate naught but scorn
should be more thankful they were born
we let them be while they prostrate
themselves in our graveyard

We count the cards in the hand we’re dealt by life
We’ll feel secure when we secure another’s strife