Entering Polaris - The Long Run

Part 1: Soldiers and Vagabonds And when we return from heavens grey Valiant or victorious, triumphant and tired Warriors wary of a gathering storm What of the roads not taken Did they lead us away from harm? May we remain unshaken through futile fury or a peddler’s charm? Here we are – soldiers and vagabonds, on quests for empathy And we move in awkward symmetries Where we are beggars and bon vivants Youthful eyes may see The good in you and me Part 2: Heroes and Siren Songs Drunk on the wine of tribulation Of tiring flights in olden fancy From henchmen hidden in ticking thickets, Time’s retort And so we look to the future Filled with sound and feral rage Ecstasies of ancient afterlives in the thick of Time Here we are – soldiers and vagabonds, in quest for great glory And we move in old mythologies Where we are heroes and siren songs It leaves me mesmerized Olympus is our prize Part 3: Miasma and Mirage Remember the way we were In olden gusts of time; we’d all the world to see As I recall the way it used to be The fire unrefrained; now old souls in twain Part 4: The Fire Unrefrained (instrumental) Part 5: Dust and Bone Buried in a land unknown It’s a fate that awaits us all, my friend Was all that came to pass really worth the time? We sing No one may know why We sing Ere we’re cold as a stone No way out, you’re along for the ride Do all good things come to an end for reasons we don’t know? Time remains a mystery And leaves us all alone in the end For in the long run, all we’re left are dust and bone So we sing No one may know why We sing Ere we’re cold as a stone We sing Our lives are but loaned But we sing From our thrones we’re thrown Part 6: Echoes and Elegies And so we return from heavens grey Vile and vilified, torrid and tragic The warrior weary from the weight of war Remember the way you were Wondrous as a child A grace in you that died Here we are – soldiers and vagabonds, in search of sympathy And we’re left but frightful effigies Here we are – echoes and elegies Miasma and mirage A tired, old adage Part 7: Reprise and Epilogue We returned from heaven’s grey Terrified and tired Lost in the midst of time, the raging surf that swept us away Here we are – vagrants and vagabonds And we are left alone to gather what remains of our thoughts Here we are – Time’s reluctant detainees Down on our knees Begging help me, please ‘Cause we’re in it for the long run And there’s no backing down No batting down the hatches No unending renown