The Seer

Long ago I heard a tale I never will forget,
The time was in the telling on the bank, the scene was set.
The sky was rolling blindly and the daylight had not gone,
She washed her hair among the stones, and saw what was to come.

All this will pass.

There will be blood among the corn and heroes in the hills,
But there is more to come, my boy, before you've had your fill.
Men will come and rape the soil as though it were their own,
And they will bathe their feet in oil, as I have bathed my own.

All this will pass, all things must come,
Just as I tell you here.

Stones will stand together as if searching for the stars,
And all come crashing down again, before they reach too far.
She turned to face the setting sun, I turned to walk away,
But then she called my name again, and beckoned me to stay.

All this will pass, all things must come,
Just as I tell you here.

She told me of the famous sons who write their names,
Yet be cut down before the time has come for our release.

Just as I tell you here.
Even now, I wait for the coming day.
Even now, she waits in the dawn,
For the tales she tells,
For the gifts that she will sell,
For the sight she knows,
For a vision that still grows,
With the dream in her eyes that no one has seen.

I listened for so long that day that I could hardly tell,
If what she said was heavensent, or brought to bear in Hell,
That men of hope could stand alone and still be cast a lie,
Just as the Romans cast them on the day they were to die.