You could not lead us anywhere we want to go
where we are sleeping we can't be led,
We are in a tunnel, we are in a cave
the drip from the limestone is there, the negative sun
We can't be led in the ice, our bones can't be led
Your speeches will not light our nerves, our closed eyes
will look on and on but the sky they erase can't be seen
Your words however they are taken, can't be taken there
into the earth, below the philosophy of all philosophies
where we are quietly spinning, where we are alone with our thoughts
Your advertisements have no effect on our cold skin
We have been voting in the dark, we pulled the lever
We could not read the names and no one would recite them to us
You could not reach us with your last message, your dark word printed
on dark paper, your scavenged signs, your scrambled slogans
your words of stone, your words without rest
falling through the courtesy of gravity, through roofs and mouths
You could not lead us for we are following our following
we are following and we will follow, we have followed
the trail of being and we will not rest with your words
They are useless to us, they are useless as promises
for we cannot be promised any more, our mouths are shut
our eyes are closed down, they have stopped the sky with earth
our cheeks are flat against our desks, we are not listening
and you cannot lead us any more, you never could and never will.
not where we are going, where we are all going.
Your words and your words could not lead us anywhere we want to go.