Listening to the lute I wonder
What did instruments sound like
In the millennia before
Manufactured strings?
What was the standard
Of excellence
And how often did their
Strings break?
Voices, too, evolve differently
And tones that once were
Thrilling
May differ from what we
Cheer today.
Justice too has changed.
Brutal justice rarely denied
But often in error
But the error was often
Just not running fast enough
From greed and lust.
How many innocents today
Have to die
Because our strings are tied
To missions of death
When other paths
Were deemed unprofitable
To those who spend
What we had held
But they took
From our strings and wallets?
George warned against
Tying ourselves to strings
But like the Hebrews
Who demanded a king
We did not listen
And now their strings
Tie up even those
We thought
Spoke for us.
The puppeteers rarely
Show their faces
But the traces
Of their control
Are there if we kick up the dust
And yet we never look
Out of fear they will be
Watching.
