Riversong

I've been down the river, I've been to the sea
I've been to the depths of the waters in me

The waters in me like the waters in you
Are old as the earth, are pulled by the moon

The moon with its glow borrowed off of the sun
Moves cold light on land and rivers as they run

They run over land made fallow by man
A man who's made fallow by his own two hands

The hands that can grow are the same that can kill
But the hands that do wrong are a human's hands still

Those killing hands they are loving hands
They are my hands and your hands
Hands that can harm are hands that can heal
Hands that can give are hands that can steal
And what do you do now that you know
The shackles are still steel the walls are still stone?
Don't look away, don't look away

And I've watched a prison go up stone by stone
It's watching a grave be filled bone by bone

Bones that have danced and bones that stood strong
Bones inside bodies with lungs full of song

Songs that can guide us unto ourselves
Before they are silenced by movements of hell

And hell isn't red hot it's cold and it's hard
It's gunshots and courtrooms
It's lies and it's laws
It's sentences and stipulations, institutions and explanations
It's a cage and a word

I've been down the river, I've been to the sea
I've been to the depths of the waters in me