Fairy Tale

So many words
Don't mean it's all just talk
Don't you know with others I'm quiet?
And for so long there was only silence
Exile and running and violence
Within death ran riot
Put your hand in mine and come for a walk
Let us listen to the songs of the birds
We could be great together in our
    time, Charlene


Have you not yet figured it out?
Do you not know who I am?
I am the prince
And you are the girl
And were we at last to kiss
We might set fire to this world

I must go among them in disguise   
So that they may speak the more freely
And I escape all notice
Though for the kiss of recognition I yearn
Then lionhearted and sure will I return
To dispel the lies that were told us
About heresy and gold and opportunity
Strike a blow against fortune and men's eyes
And win the hand of the fair Charlene 


Have you not yet figured it out?
Do you not know who I am?
I am the prince
And you are the girl
And were we at last to kiss
We might set fire to this world

When I sipped from the chalice
She cried
I never sipped from the chalice
I lied
But I kept on searching
And I didn't die 


The thought of you starts my heart to dance
I wish you could see the way you look in my eye
Election is the conceit of the learned
History is the conceit of nations
I went unseen at all of their stations
And there was no mercy in the offerings they burned
Stand with me amidst all their pleas and cries
Make fate our own and love our circumstance
Two together is the greatest force, Charlene

Have you not yet figured it out?
Do you not know who I am?
I am the prince
And you are the girl
And were we at last to kiss
We might set fire to this world


Mistake not in my cloak of rags
For my soul does not rove in tatters
And as a king I am with thee
In these and country matters
A world for you I would procure
And with my lines proclaim
Invite you where no other has stepped
With you share the same
For these things I make are not less than real
Even greater for the claim
Won't you walk out with me tonight, Charlene
In the soft midnight rain?

Have you not yet figured it out?
Do you not know who I am?
I am the prince
And you are the girl
And were we at last to kiss
We might set fire to this world

Seven Muddy Horses

The first time I saw them in a dream
Loping through a mountain pass
The next time I saw them was in town
Coming cross the river bridge
Running fast
Seven muddy horses


On one sat a rider
His face a mask, of grim countenance
     and death
Red roses where his eyes had been
And no one rode the rest
Seven muddy horses


The next time I saw them
Was on the burying ground
Standing in a herd at a respectful distance
With their heads bowed down
Seven muddy horses


John Brown rode a cock horse
Jesus rode a mule
One of them was a savior
The other a madman and a fool
I'm not afraid of dying, especially out of doors
But I'm not going to any more funerals, especially yours
Sometimes late at night when the candles are burning
And there's no one else around
That's when I hear the sound
Seven muddy horses
Seven muddy horses
Seven muddy horses
Going down