Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Turned and tossed in this widening flight And I can't find my bearings The voice that called me once is lost And the silence left is tearing at me Everything's starting to fall apart The center cannot hold The blood-dimmed tide is loosed upon us And innocence is drowning All around the best of men are lacking in conviction While the wicked and the worst are full of passion and intent All we have is falling apart The center cannot hold The blood-dimmed tide has covered us And the innocent are drowning Surely there's some revelation coming close at hand - A second coming I can barely mouth the words before the images assault me Somewhere in the desert, a monstrous affront turns its pitiless gaze to me Its blinding stare is like the sun I turn my eyes and fight to shake it but it's frozen in my mind The darkness drops again, but now I know Twenty centuries of sleep have been shaken to a nightmare What rough beast, its hour come ‘round at last Slouches towards Bethlehem, waiting to be born? All we have has fallen apart The center could not hold The blood-dimmed tide was loosed And the innocent are drowning