Tortoises All the Way Down

Watchmen with their eyes closed, ransom and a scripture by the picture of your face Messages the rhymes chose, blueprint for contrition in a cigarette case Everybody knows, son Everybody knows what you've done Everybody knows, son Everybody knows exactly what you've done Charles was alive then, towering like a mountain at the silver trumpet blast William still alive till when our altars are all emptied of his offerings to the last Everybody knows, son Everybody knows just what you've done Everybody knows, son And so again it goes you can't end what you've begun Surely as the sun early on the east side comes Before my sleepless eyes your features metamorphosize Surely as the sun early on the east side comes If only you had known how soon you'd be on your own How suddenly they'd cast the stone When the mouths of praise and blame start to sound the same And you've asked they please not come back around And yet they happen by, you can offer my reply: "There's tortoises all the way down." Since the night you came dressed up in your righteous name All you claim to see doesn't mean a thing to me Surely as the sun early on the east side comes I know I'm not the only one Whose blindfold-and-a-scale-ship refused to sail And yet failed since each search for solid ground You sing to me at night as the moving finger writes On tortoises all the way down You think that glass of wine could cancel half a line? But it won't wash our words out this time And I'm not the only one who's got nowhere to run Cause everybody knows, son Everybody knows just what you've done Everybody knows, son Everybody knows what you've done While all hiding inside our painting-of-a-house-hung-up-inside- that same-painted-house-which-ever-implies-another-painted-house-inside lives Serpent-in-the-sky-lives! Servants-of-the-least-high! Most-tortoiseless lives! Would you meet me sometime soon, son, down by the riverside? There's room enough in my paradise My empty little mind