And the shadows passed in the evening light

As industry hammered out emblems to a rising height

And swaying in reams of moonlight passed down

Percussions of a heartbeat led a watchman to his town

  

“If you’ve forgotten me, then please don’t remember me.”

The words etched in the plaster laid upon a broken reed

And everywhere the watchman looked, eyes that he could not trust

Til finally he found his home balanced on the scales of the just.

 

He laid bare his burden, and he offered up his guilt

That his remorse was payment for the hollow bones he’d built

But the eyes of justice only watched him plain

And spoke, “No salvation here can be earned or gained.”

 

In the night, a penny fell from the mouth of a scampering cat

As wells worn of a weathered sun long since set

Greeted passersby hardly listening to their own parade

Who’d already forgotten what the sun had offered today.

  

And the shadows slept with the morning light

As industry woke its strength in clangored chimes

And swaying by dying moonlight passed down

Percussions of footsteps carried a watchman from his town