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Of war and peace the truth just twists, its curfew gull it glides |
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Upon four-legged forest clouds the cowboy angel rides |
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With his candle lit into the sun, though its glow is waxed in black |
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All except when 'neath the trees of Eden |
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The lamppost stands with folded arms, its iron claws attached |
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To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail, though it shadows metal badge |
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And all and all can only fall with a crashing but meaningless blow |
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And no sound ever comes from the gates of Eden |
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The savage soldier sticks his head in sand and then complains |
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Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf but still remains |
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Upon the beach where hound dogs bay at ships with tattooed sails |
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Heading for the gates of Eden |
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With a time-rusted compass blade, Aladdin and his lamp |
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Oh, sits with Utopian hermit monks, sidesaddle on the Golden Calf |
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And on their promises of paradise you will not hear a laugh |
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All except inside the gates of Eden |
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Oh, relationships of ownership, they whisper in the wings |
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To those condemned to act accordingly and wait for succeeding kings |
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And I try to harmonize with songs the lonesome sparrow sings |
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Oh, there are no kings inside the gates of Eden |
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Oh, the motorcycle black Madonna, two-wheeled gypsy queen |
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And her silver-studded phantom cause the gray flannel dwarf to scream |
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As he weeps to wicked birds of prey who pick up on his bread crumb sins |
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And there are no sins inside the gates of Eden |
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The kingdoms of experience, in the precious winds they rot |
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While paupers change possessions, each one wishing for what the other has got |
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And the princess and the prince discuss what's real and what is not |
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It doesn't matter inside the gates of Eden |
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The foreign sun, it squints upon a bed that is never mine |
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As friends and other strangers, from their fates try to resign |
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Leaving men wholly, totally free to do anything they wish to do but die |
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And there are no trials inside the gates of Eden |
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At dawn my lover comes to me and tells me of her dreams |
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With no attempts to shovel the glimpse into the ditch of what each one means |
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And at times I think there are no words but these to tell what's true |
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And there are no truths outside the gates of Eden |
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No, there are no truths outside the gates of Eden |