Goodbye & Hello

The antique people are down in the dungeons
Run by machines and afraid of the tax
Their heads in the grave and their hands on their eyes
Hauling their hearts around circular tracks

Pretending forever their masquerade towers
Are not really riddled with widening cracks
And I wave goodbye to iron
And smile hello to the air

Oh the new children dance
I am young all around the balloons
I will live swaying by chance
I am strong to the breeze from the moon

I can give painting the sky
You the strange with the colors of sun
Seed of day freely they fly
Feel the change as all become one
Know the way, know the way

The velocity addicts explode on the highways
Ignoring the journey and moving so fast
Their nerves fall apart and they gasp but can't breathe
They run from the cops of the skeleton past

Petrified by tradition in a nightmare they stagger
Into nowhere at all and then look up aghast
And I wave goodbye to speed
And smile hello to a rose

Oh the new children play
I am young under the juniper trees
I will live sky blue or gray
I am strong they continue at ease

I can give moving so slow
You the strange that serenely they can
Seed of day gracefully grow
Feel the change and yes still understand
Know the way, know the way, know the way

King and the queen in their castle of billboards
Sleepwalk down the hallways dragging behind
All their possessions and transient treasures
As they go to worship the electronic shrine

On which is playing the late late commercial
That hollowest house of the opulent blind
And I wave goodbye to Mammon
And smile hello to a stream

Oh the new children buy
I am young all the world for a song
I will live without a dime
I am strong to which they belong

I can give nobody owns
You the strange anything, anywhere
Seed of day everyone's grown
Feel the change up so big they can share
Know the way, know the way

The vaudeville generals cavort on the stage
And shatter their audience with submachine guns
And freedom and violence the acrobat clowns
Do a balancing act on the graves of our sons

While the tap dancing emperor sings War is peace
And love the magician disappears in the fun
And I wave goodbye to murder
And smile hello to the rain

Oh the new children can't
I am young tell a foe from a friend
I will live quick to enchant
I am strong and so glad to extend

I can give handfuls of dawn
You the strange to kaleidoscope men
Seed of day come from beyond
Feel the change The Great Wall of Skin
Know the way, know the way

The bloodless husbands are jesters who listen
Like sheep to the shrieks and commands of their wives
And the men who aren't men, leave the women alone
See them all faking love on a bed made of knives

Afraid to discover or trust in their bodies
And in secret divorce they will never survive
And I wave goodbye to ashes
And smile hello to a girl

Oh the new children kiss
I am young they are so proud to learn
I will live womanhood bliss
I am strong and the man fire that burns

I can give knowing no fear
You the strange they take off their clothes
Seed of day honest and clear
Feel the change as a river that flows
Know the way, know the way, know the way

The antique people are fading out slowly
Like newspapers flaming in mind suicide
Godless and sexless direction less loons
Their sham sandcastles dissolve in the tide

They put on their death masks, compromise daily
The new children will live for the elders have died
And I wave goodbye to America
And smile hello to the world