Journeyman

This is a story of a young man, traveling ancient countrysides, looking for new emotions to experience. Looking to give more than to get, and understanding the frailty in the notion that nothing is really given to you aside from the very air that you breathe But things are changing now Things are rapidly becoming... very different... than they once were On a southbound train that seems to eat through the German countryside like a mylar saw through wood Like a hammer breaking through old bones My reflections are now turning from the circus mirrors and smoke to framed glass Preparing to separate my interior frailty from the dangers of the outside Those things I do not quite understand I can see hints of colored city kid influence In colorful accents dancing across the foundations of former communist factories Saying, to me, that I've been here before Despite this railway being my virgin transport in this oh so foreign place Chopping through the world I've come to understand as mine Like a lion's teeth through the ribs of a gazelle On a hunt And when we reach Stuttgart I believe I am a man of different thinking My energy replenished with each stop between Hamburg and Munich Visions of Göthe Thomas Mann immortalised by the artistic politics of iron curtains Falling as certain as rain Grape vines growing rooted from the lips of the Rhein see This particular world I'm traveling through Is much older than the world I call mine Today I'm the gunpowder in a continental bullet A cell in this electric vein coursing through the Black Forest My destination just beyond the trees A relatively young man traveling ancient countrysides And newfangled sidewalk technology Looking to give more than to get And understanding the frailty in the notion that nothing is given to you but the air you breathe And the trees that hide my destination Resemble loose hairs on the head of an old gentleman from afar These mountains protecting villages and colonies like a mote Encircling castles of fallen leaders Roughly an hour north of the Munich skyline This trip is very different than any I've been on before I wish I could transmit this experience through American urban radio and whore-house shopping malls To Wall Street executives and stay-at-home moms in the Bible belt Just to say hey look at the world and get off your block Pick up a book Stop watching the clock There is so much more to learn than Trades and monolingual grades To be sure This ride is special This countryside is ancient And many of these things I do not understand But I feel like I've been here before This ride, the thoughts that come with it Tell me to cherish life now because the only real gift given to you is the present The only real gift given to you is right now