Chimes of Freedom

Far between sundown's finish and midnight's broken toll We ducked inside a doorway as thunder went crashing As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight And for each and every underdog soldier in the night And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing Through the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched With faces hidden as the walls were tightening As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain Dissolved into the bells of the lightning Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake Tolling for the luckless, they abandoned and forsaked Tolling for the outcast, burning constantly at stake And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing Through the mad, mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder As the clanging of the church bells blew far into the breeze Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind And the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin' In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales For the disrobed faceless forms of no position Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts All down in taken-for-granted situations Tolling for the deaf and blind, tolling for the mute For the mistreated, mate-less mother, the mis-titled prostitute For the misdemeanor outlaw, chained and cheated by pursuit And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flared And the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting Electric light still struck like arrows fired but for the ones Condemned to drift or else be kept from driftin' Tolling for the searching ones on their speechless seeking trail For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing Starry-eyed and laughing as I recall when we were caught Trapped by no track of hours for they hang suspended As we listened one last time and we watched with one last look Spellbound and swallowed 'til the tolling ended Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed For the countless confused, Accused, misused, strung-out ones and worse And for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin'