The Teller's Tune

In a Manhattan courtroom, the gavel fell down On the golden-haired king who once wore a crown Thirty-four charges, the jury agreed A bitter harvest from a long-planted seed Of ledgers and secrets and stories for sale Now a former great leader is caught in the gale They'll write it in books, how the mighty can sway But the law kept its patient appointment today. Oh, the news it comes rolling like thunder and rain Telling the same human story again and again

Of power and pride, of the sun and the dust Of promises broken and who you can trust The headlines all fade, but the story remains And the weary old world just keeps turning in chains. Down south in the valley, the mercury climbs A testament to our feverish times The Texas sun beats with a merciless glare While twisters are dancing on midwestern air The rivers run thin and the coast disappears We're drowning in warnings we've chosen not to hear

The farmer looks up at a sky hard as stone A trouble that he has to weather alone. Oh, the news it comes rolling like thunder and rain Telling the same human story again and again Of power and pride, of the sun and the dust Of promises broken and who you can trust The headlines all fade, but the story remains And the weary old world just keeps turning in chains. And a ghost in the wire has learned how to speak With a voice that is stolen and charmingly sleek

It offers us futures and answers our calls While building new kingdoms inside digital walls We ask it for wisdom, we ask it for art Forgetting the beat of a singular heart. Oh, the news it comes rolling like thunder and rain Telling the same human story again and again Of power and pride, of the sun and the dust Of promises broken and who you can trust The headlines all fade, but the story remains And the weary old world just keeps turning in chains.