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