That's How Every Empire Falls - John Prine

He caught a train from Alexandria, just a broken man in flight

Runnin' scared with his devils, sayin' prayers all through the night

Oh but mercy can’t find him, not in the shadows where he calls

Forsakin' all his better angels: that’s how every empire falls

Bells ring out on Sunday morning like echoes from another time

All our innocence and yearning and sense of wonder left behind

Oh gentle hearts remember, What was that story?

Is it lost?

For when religion loses vision, that’s how every empire falls

He toasts his wife and all his family, the providence he brought to bear

They raise their glasses in his honor although this union they don’t share

A man who lives among them was still a stranger to them all

For when the heart is never open, that’s how every empire falls

Padlock the door and board the windows, put the people in the street

«It's just my job,» he says, «I'm sorry,» and draws a check, goes home to eat

But at night he tells his woman, «I know I hide behind the laws»

She says, «You're only taking orders»: that’s how every empire falls

A bitter wind blows through the country, a hard rain falls on the sea

If terror comes without a warning, there must be something we don’t see

What fire begets this fire?

Like torches thrown into the straw?

If no one asks, no one will answer: that’s how every empire falls