The Multitude

When we finally lose our heads, will you wonder why?
Will a single tear be shed, will your banner fly?
When the streets are running red, will you still be standing by?
When the righteous few are dead, will you be afraid to cry

Out across the bloody plain that they can’t have died in vain
Will you stand your ground when you’re pursued
Or will you still depend on the mood of the multitude?

Will you lay a single track on the road to freedom?
Would you give the shirt off your back when mine’s whipped and bleedin’?
Won’t you give the people slack for letting you mislead them?
Would you hang me on the rack if I demand you feed them?

Won’t you ask the same of me? Are you too ashamed to be
Defending me – are you so far removed
That you can’t hear the footsteps of the multitude?

When you hurl the world upside I will set it right again
Was the kingdom that you lied to get worth all the lives you spent?
You turned the language inside out but I know what you meant
You’re the one who’s taking down the office of the president

When the hangman comes for you will you blame it on the Jews
Proclaim it on the evening news, weep for all the camera crews
To give you back your right to choose when you got nothing left to lose

When it’s you who’s standing nude
Before the multitude


1997