The Storyteller's Dispatch

Gather 'round and listen for a spell Got another story I must tell Pulled it from the wires and the air A tangled knot of hope and of despair I heard it on the wind in Atlanta town And from the highest court as word came down Just another chapter, worn and old A tale of power, bought and sold. Oh, the headlines roll on like a thundercloud Spoken soft and shouted way too loud But you strip away the date and all the names

You're left with just the same old human games A song of fear, a ballad of the fight I'm just here to sing it in the fading light. Two old men stood underneath the glare With a silent nation holding to a prayer One man's voice was faltering and low A river struggling for a place to flow The other swung with words as sharp as stone About a kingdom he once called his own They talked of numbers, borders, and disease While a worried country rustled like the trees.

Oh, the headlines roll on like a thundercloud Spoken soft and shouted way too loud But you strip away the date and all the names You're left with just the same old human games A song of fear, a ballad of the fight I'm just here to sing it in the fading light. Then the gavels fell on a marble hill Making laws the way they always will For a soul in Idaho who's losing blood Caught between a law and what is good And for the weary man with no place for his head

Now it's a crime to make the street his bed From the highest halls to the gutters deep Promises are things they never keep. Oh, the headlines roll on like a thundercloud Spoken soft and shouted way too loud But you strip away the date and all the names You're left with just the same old human games A song of fear, a ballad of the fight I'm just here to sing it in the fading light.