Of war and peace the truth just twists its curfew gull it glides
Upon four-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 lamppost stands with folded arms its iron claws attached
To curbs and heath holes where babies
wail though its 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 hound dogs 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 caused the
gray flannel dwarf to scream As he
weeps to wicked birds of prey who pick
up on his bread crumb 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 a 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