Crime alley of the world
Industry beds her many men
And fools toil in hopeless misery beneath the red-lit sky
Dark, angry, eternal, night
City of the bowed neck
All say that you are cruel and I do see
See rotten men with rotten hearts
And hopeless children, women, men – sell all for but survival
And a killer kills and laughs and laughs and laughs
Nowhere else does such despair fester dark
Rotten souls of all within, but for that single spark
Broken, they are – and into their shattered graves
Others fall, and cut, and break
What rancid misery does this dark hole defend!
But this I see and so do all – but when they sneer I laugh
For in its rotten, broken glass-shard heart does steel yet shine!
No need for bright-lit men of utter strength have we –
For dark is the night, the Knight, the true and utter king beneath the eaves
Men go wrong and weak must leave
But ever more does silent, black and utter dark
Still whisper on – you will not fall tonight, tonight, tonight!
So stand! Stand in mockery of dark herein;
And flee if you cannot stand, for floods do wash about
But ne'er give in, or up, away – for there it shine –
In red lit sky and stormy mist. The Light we see!
Spotlight bright, and hope it brings – for ever does the terror end
And ever does the Knight descend