Farewell to a Percival

So you planned to chip away at trouble

but it left you standing in the rubble

Now your tears are trapped in crystal puddles

with a stone portrait of your double

And if you begged me to remain around

would grief keep tearing at your gown

All the sadness waltzing around your frown

Well, it's bound to bring some ceilings down

Now there ain't no reason my heart will hear

so you can shed the pickax and climbing gear

but please don't stand and watch my back disappear

as I fade into the mountains there

Whose to say the sky is mean

if it stands between you and your kingdom?

They say some things are meant to be seen

and some things are meant to be kept hidden

All those saints who feed on virtue are ruthless

saying you need a deed to be so virtuous

And guilt is vainly plainly discouraged

as we kow-tow to their courage

But I saw the glorious white arch fall

and the great soldier children were crushed and all

the townspeople looked and saw their shadows

and then had to stay inside and drain their pillows

Then I had a dream seven nights in a row

you were following me through all these doomed places I go

Well I knew I was weak but I guess I didn't know

I was in need of a guardian angel

Whose to say the sky is mean

if it stands between you and your kingdom?

They say some things are meant to be seen

and some things are meant to be kept hidden

The river I follow has turned so small

I can't hardly swallow any strength at all

And the pale fish rotting in its muddy walls

I know they lost their eyes before they stalled

So I search and I yearn and I barely breathe

and the person who once knew you is no longer me

With my torn yellow map and my dry canteen

I can't stop to count my blessings

Or the curved lines of longitude

I burned as if they were fuses

to pass the mirage and land the oasis

where I'm going to fill up all these empty spaces

Whose to say the sky is mean

if it stands between you and your kingdom?

They say some things are meant to be seen

and some things are meant to be kept hidden

To pass the mirage and land the oasis

where I'm going to fill up all these empty spaces

and free myself of these earthly races

I'll send you my thirst first and then the laces

of my shoes