All the Old Heroes

Come over old stranger, let go of your dagger

You stagger and then you are saved

To wander in danger, a babe in the manger

Forgetting mistakes that you've made

Eyes like mine blinking

And endlessly drinking

Letting the warlords inside

Falling like mice into fires of ice

In death we find places to hide

All the old heroes are like children to me now

As I come to burn your shame away

Without knowing exactly how

All the old heroes, young babies without mothers

Left to die on apocalyptic streets

And where are these words from who spoke them before?

Coming down like flashes of heat

I'm never frightened, for death I still welcome

Death I have seen you before

I gave you my keys, my windows, my creeds

But soon I will give you much more

All the old heroes are like children to me now

As I come to burn your shame away

Without knowing exactly how

Love is a fix, a suicide wrist

Blood with an unending flow

To purify lands and soak in the sands

Of places that we'll never go

Jesus come calling

We'll be here and falling

Praying for your hand to show

Catch us in mercy, drink us when thirsty

Each of us falling like snow

All the old heroes are like children to me now

As I come to burn your shame away

Without knowing exactly how

Each one a cathedral

The last junkie needle

Stained glass from blood that is old

And in that cathedral, with the angels of nighttime

Pained in a window so cold

They see through your victims your painful musicians

Playing the saddest of songs

But nobody singing, just a ghost without dreaming

A voice that could right all the wrongs

All the old heroes are like children to me now

As I come to burn your shame away

Without knowing exactly how

Goodbye, sweet diamond the sky in the north wind

Is falling on lepers and snakes

Hello, young mercy, both blessed and thirsty

For solutions to so many mistakes

Without your lover, your tired wonder

The south rain threatens to pour

On skulls like crashing in sunlight basking

Ignoring the strongest of calls

You cannot save them without their consent

Your voice of mercy to them I have sent

You spoke through me

You, a good man

Grew up to listen and give me your hand

Your voice of mercy so strong and so true

It comes out in cascades without residue

Of darkness or lies or doubt or untruth

It's pure like the wind, the rain, and the youth

All the old heroes are like children to you now

As you go to burn their shame away

Without knowing exactly how

All the old heroes are like children to you now

As you go to burn their shame away

Without knowing exactly how