Time Enough For Questions When the Killing’s Done

Saint Joan wearing visions on an evening gown of armor
sang on the beach head to the sailors and the farmers
and the only ones who listened were the disillusioned lovers
and she promised she would show me how to judge a man of honor
then they stripped her of her memories and threw her to the water
and the tide sang of heroes as she sank into the evening
and I cried

great Caesar wore a canon like a holy man his bible
and he could think no thoughts of malice for he swore he was not able
and he danced for all the children in the gutters and the alleys
and then he promised he would show me how to judge a man of honor
and then he called for twenty fathers and he shot them down like garbage
and the wind cried out like widows as the rain played on the tombstones
and I cried

and Jesus wearing nothing but the scorn of misplaced envy
brought rainbows to the dying that their graves might not be empty
and then he founded a kingdom for the lepers and the beggars
and then he promised he would show me how to judge a man of honor
and so they nailed him to a cross and they left him by the roadside
and the breeze stole off in sorrow for the blood upon the highway
and I cried