In these Dead-Dark Joyless Days
Hate permeates
And Pain--Pain!
All the time
Oh, Pain--Pain!
All the time

Everywhere, the pall pervades
Over the face of things--
The pall of pain and hate
Withers all the joy it touches
A sickness, the pall of plague

This plague it weakens me
Though I know I must be strong
And what is strength, if not to suffer?
Remaining resolute, as the pall prolongs

But oh, the Pain!
The pall produces
All joy is dead and gone
The future is not left untouched
For hopes and dreams have reached their denouement

(How can there be no joy in dreaming?)

Yet there is father, sitting there
And I find I am not alone
For the boon companion of misery
Is a club, all our own

But oh, the Hate!
Seated in my heart, visceral
That blazing ball of rage reposes
Birthed by enormities, unforgivable

This oppression of the soul
An insufferable smothering
How can oppressors ask forgiveness?
It's the ultimate revenge
To hog that coveted thing

The thing that makes it easier
The thing that makes it comfortable
The thing that numbs the guilty
Shame--shame--shame on you!
Swallow the sinful truth

(And choke--choke on your cruelty!)

Those who perpetuate the pall of oppression
Those who spread the plague
Will die by guilt and shame and sin
And linger, locked in their cage