The Case of William Smith - Astronautalis

William holds his palm out proud

Upon the Bible, lays it down

And solemnly swears against it

That every word is true

Searching through the faceless crowd

In the hallowed auditorium

He sees that everyone’s turned against him

And his endless pursuit

The saga that he spells out

Has mothers grabbing children

Grown men twisting mustaches

As priests smooth out their suits

But William hammers right along

And ignores the banging gavel of

The judge’s plea for order

In the chaos of the room

Outside my cell

There is an oak that grows

Through the fence line

And towards the sun

They built a barrier of barbs

Flush but against its bark

And still its burls unfurl

Into branches strong

The silver thorns that hem in my hole

Snare me here through sun and snow

While barbs may scar

They cannot stop the mighty Oak

Burgeoning upward and out

This figure made out

The persistence that’d been made

Stopped by its daggered escape route

Once it finally stands tall

The limbs will make the fence fall

The slowest getaway car

That the guard ever saw

The warden scratches his bald patches

Raised his arms in the air

And wondered how this happened

Despite his decades to prepare

In this I found the faith

You’d see my sentence a mistake

Discharge me from this place

And reinstate me in your grace

The truth will set you free one day

My father promised me

But I’d never thought

The truth would come this way, quite honestly

William holds his palm out proud

Upon the Bible, lays it down

And solemnly swear against it

That every word is true

Searching through the faceless crowd

In the hallowed auditorium

He sees that everyone is turned against him

And his endless pursuit

If you’d have told me back then

That the words from my pen

Would’ve branded me a paynim

I’d have never changed a damn thing

I’m sure it’s shocking to your ears

That the treatise you revere

Would suffer such assessment

At the stylus of a confrere

But I am more than well aware

Of how you all were unprepared

To stare into the sun

As a means to pick apart its flares

Covenant in question

And career upon the line

I suffer your reckless sanctions

With a clarity of mind

The charges that you lay

Against my character and faith

Will burden you with shame

When you face the Prince in paradise

And He knows as well as I

That the heralds can carol flat songs

The refrain rate’s familiar

But the words just seem a tad wrong

God is just a breath away

He lives a kiss from your lips

While the message can mutate as it

Drifts from mount to chisel tips

So this is it

My suffering sings its swan song

Suspicion sets me sovereign

From restriction of your sad bonds

You edit me from existence

For continuity

May the Lord be always in your footsteps

To document your lunacy

William holds his palm out proud

Upon the Bible, lays it down

And solemnly swears against it

That every word is true

Searching through the faceless crowd

In the hallowed auditorium

He sees that everyone is turned against him

And his endless pursuit

The saga that he spells out

Has mothers grabbing children

Grown men twisting mustaches

As priests smooth out their suits

But William hammers right along

And ignores the banging gavel of

The judges plea for order

In the chaos of the room