Theme song for the
'Cospirazione delle Contemplative':

(we're still about good coffee here)

Inextricably Bound
panem et circenses

So many stanzas whisper like reticent prayers to ourselves;
only the existential lies penetrating our citadels,
the purest lines cloying from age and misuse.
The past is old wineskin and all verity a noose.

Evolution has matured us far beyond comply,
and we’ve subtly outgrown the daily cadence of the sky.
We ignore that we’re merely elements bound by Providence alone
and reduce the blaze of truth to thin blue light or a pile of stone.

We are offended by mercy and too wise to be inspired
by those who live fully immersed in unseen fire;
and if the veil that conceals us should be pierced by their word
we’ll certainly insist a thicker curtain is preferred.

For the mysterious brilliance that certain lives reflect
the murky entrails of our own construct may neatly vivisect.
Seeing what they are, we see what we should be;
slavery is more poignant juxtaposed against the free.

Our match-lit labyrinths of self-indulgence and unreason
masquerade as righteousness both in and out of season.
Sacrifice rings hollow to hearts petrified and lame;
and we’ve been passed a cumbrous ancient torch without its flame.

We are aware that below us churn unstable molten seas
and know we cannot breathe but for the green breath of trees.
Not one of us can escape the gentle force of the full moon
or find shadows to hide us in the intensity of noon.

Still we try to bundle truth up in a grassroots opaque shroud
and then in the fervent madness of the single-minded crowd
shove it all diplomatically to the cliff beyond the privet,
mindless of what we’ll encounter as we freefall with it.

~ from "To Sing You Must Exhale," available through Lulu