Not Ideas About the King But the King Himself Lyrics

John Jacob Niles, I am haunted by romance
Things in the valley, of things yet to be
Please come back to life and use your vibrato
To sound out a path the blind can use to return

For now the way's blocked by an inferno
Everything's on fire and I don't think it rains
I use my hands to contemplate it
I'm hiding my face except for my eyes

Everyone in the fire pretends they're not burning
They just keep digging holes and collecting their pay
Sometimes before a figure collapses
As they begin to smoke they point at the sky

My father is one of the engineers
I don't know which one, but my mother should
He helped build a lake in Oklahoma
When a thousand boats sank there they set them both on fire

Another old man no relation to me
Climbed up on a roof to look at the moon
The subtlety of her form was terrible to him
He threw himself off the roof, though it was only two floors

I'm only three miles from the place I was brought up
I'm only six feet from the spot where I'll die
People around me are blistered and hidden
There's blood on the ground but I don't think it's mine

My eyes cannot focus for the strain I put on them
There's a litter of smoke like dogs in the sky
A cannon's established overlooking the valley
Pointing at the moon though I am not sure why

The king is not dead, he is just made immortal
So is his crown he continues to lead
The king made immortal has human eyes
He took from his daughter so he'd continue to see

By sheer force of will I will be there tomorrow
I won't go anywhere there's no reason to stay
The moon's yellow light is neither subtle nor brutal
But a patient reflection of the inferno to come

The sun is the same as his daughter the moon
Neither admits it but both are ashamed
I'm as far from the one as I can be without freezing
I'm as close to the other as is possible now

The land in the winter is festooned with rockets
They won't leave for me though I'm sure I am next
They are not a judgment though I'm sure I am righteous
Their corduroy shoulders and the scepters of same
Slouching toward something in the direction we came

King's eyes renew like his other children
His daughter without eyes sits here next to me
The king is not dead, he is just made immortal
And so is his crown he continues to lead