The Atlanta Wheel

The Georgia sun beat down on dusty ground A nation held its breath to hear a sound Two old men stood upon a floodlit stage To turn another torn and troubled page One lost his words beneath the burning light The other sharpened knives all through the night And all the king's men and the anchor's pleas Were scattered like the leaves upon the breeze Oh, the wheel of fortune spins and spins again For the hero's fall and the rise of other men

The ink is barely dry upon the scroll Before a brand new story takes its toll It's the same old tune on a different string The song the weary traveler has to sing The whispers turned to thunder in the halls As allies watched the way an empire falls Not with a bang, but with a faltering phrase Lost in the memory of bygone days They're drawing lines and choosing who to back Putting all the pieces on the rack

A dynasty begins to fray and bend And wonder if the story's at an end Oh, the wheel of fortune spins and spins again For the hero's fall and the rise of other men The ink is barely dry upon the scroll Before a brand new story takes its toll It's the same old tune on a different string The song the weary traveler has to sing The black-robed judges sent their rulings down On who can sleep upon the cold hard ground

The screens we hold, they argued what they mean Another act in this familiar scene And out west the fires burn and skies turn gray While we all wonder what to do today Oh, the wheel of fortune spins and spins again For the hero's fall and the rise of other men The ink is barely dry upon the scroll Before a brand new story takes its toll It's the same old tune on a different string The song the weary traveler has to sing