I was alone and it was night

I had nobody else to turn to

but the voices talking to me from afar

and with endearing words so silent

they told me the secret about who you really are

A million images and words, long since forgotten,

of events that no one ever saw

I hear a whimper as I kneel,

realizing that it's your pain that I feel

"In this house of worship I'm a stone"



And as I wandered through the night

I felt a presence of the past, the future

and the present now

The voices placed me in the minds

of two young lovers,

the husband in the war who's never coming home,

the young girl realizing she's in fact a boy

and the old man recollecting his first toy,

the widow, the rapist, a gold digger, the hero

and at last the voice I heard before:

"In this house of worship I'm a stone"



"But there's blood gushing out

of the cracks and fissures

split me in two I'm hollow inside

You can't make me feel their sorrow

Did you think that the earth could cry?"



I was alone and it was night



"But there's blood..."



In the dark a mist of light

leading down into its bowels

And I walk the spiral staircase

as the mist slowly dissolves



A wooden banister, a bridge

and a vast stone wall up ahead

I cross the bridge and hear the voices

and they're speaking of the dead



"In moments of hallucinated power

You thought that you had us stalled

But ours are tears of liquid fire

watch us cry a river over you"



"To comprehend me,

you can think of this place as my home.

From here I've seen it all,

throughout time I've watched your mistakes..."



"But there's blood..."



Then again,

to comprehend me

you can think of what I have gone through

I've aided dirty hands

when they've stoned defenseless innocents"



"I am every stone on earth,

everything is recorded in me

But I'm not to interfere

Just continue to act as if I'm not here

I don't care for love or hate

And I know there is no such thing as fate

No greater power will punish your mistakes

Your acts are out of your own free will"



"I was here before you

and I'll still be here when you're gone..."