Fool on the Hill

"Day after day, alone on the hill,
"The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still.
"But nobody wants to know him,
"They can see that he's just a fool."
Every con man is a coward at heart. That’s what makes it so easy for him to spot human weakness. But no matter how much he may delight in the joy of the con of the moment, in the end he knows the biggest con is on himself. Guess who’s cheated himself out of his own future?

As I sit here in the night scribbling paper tiger words rarely to be read, I find myself in an unenviable position. No home, no family, no career – what is the redeeming value of my life? I can only hope that somehow I contribute to the communal consciousness, that my thoughts and realizations are heard in ways I cannot see.

"And nobody seems to like him,
"They can tell what he wants to do.
"And he never shows his feelings..."
So I am the fool on the hill, dreaming of a life that’s not my own. No one wants to hear what a man who has no stake has got to say. A man without allegiance is trusted by few. But if one’s allegiance is not to the truth then one’s allegiance is not to one’s self. Only truth stands the test of time.

So I’ve been thinking about this country of ours: how it’s doing, where it’s going and why. The war is killing us. It will stay at the maximum sustainable level until the end of this term. Each day we’re in it we dig the hole a little deeper. My, my how we lie to ourselves. But whoever inherits this war inherits a sewn in disaster. It’s easy to take shots when you’re on the outside but once you’re on the inside things look a whole lot different.

"Well on his way, his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices, talking perfectly loud.
But nobody ever hears him,
Or the sound he appears to make."
So terrified will that person be of being associated with an historic meltdown on their watch, they will do anything to put off that day of reckoning. It may be in altered form, but the war will go on until it bleeds us dry. Prove me wrong, America. Prove you can admit when you’re in the wrong. Show me what you’re made of. Show me some of Tom Barkley’s guts!

The con man justifies his evil deeds by saying you can’t cheat an honest man – or an honest country. You see, America, I know what the future is when you run away from your own truth. It won’t be pretty and I can already hear the finger pointing. It’d be funny if we didn’t need you. So this fool on the hill just keeps asking: Tell me again why love won’t work.

"But the fool on the hill,
"Sees the sun going down.
"And the eyes in his head,
"See the world spinning around."