Fat man looking in a blade of steel

Thin man looking at his last meal

Hollow man looking in a cotton field

For dignity

Wise man looking in a blade of grass

Young man looking in the shadows that pass

Poor man looking through painted glass

For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve

Somebody said dignity was the first to leave

I went into the city, went into the town

Went into the land of the midnight sun

Searching high, searching low

Searching everywhere I know

Asking the cops wherever I go

"Have you seen dignity?"

Blind man breaking out of a trance

Puts both his hands in the pockets of chance

Hoping to find one circumstance

Of dignity

I went to the wedding of Mary Lou

She said, "I don't want nobody see me talking to you"

Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew

About dignity

I went down where the vultures feed

I would've gone deeper, but there wasn't any need

Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men

Wasn't any difference to me

The chilly wind sharp as a razor blade

House on fire, debts unpaid

Gonna stand at the window, going to ask the maid

"Have you seen dignity?"

Drinking man listens to the voice he hears

In a crowded room full of covered-up mirrors

Looking into the lost forgotten years

For dignity

Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues

Said he'd give me information if his name wasn't used

He wanted money up front, said he was abused

By dignity

Footprints running across the silver sand

Steps going down into tattoo land

I met the sons of darkness and the sons of light

In the border towns of despair

Got no place to fade, got no coat

I'm on the rolling river in a jerkin' boat

Trying to read a note somebody wrote

About dignity

Sick man looking for the doctor's cure

Looking at his hands for the lines that were

And into every masterpiece of literature

For dignity

An Englishman stranded in the black-heart wind

Combing his hair back, his future looks thin

Bites the bullet and he looks within

For dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed

Dignity never been photographed

I went into the red, went into the black

Into the valley of dry bone dreams

So many roads, so much at stake

Too many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake

Sometimes I wonder what it's going to take

To find dignity