• The man held my hand and asked me a question,
    "Why do you have such a bleak expression?"

    The answer was simple, or so I had thought;
    Through countless harsh battles I'd valiantly fought
    And over long distance I'd ridden to find
    That all whom I'd loved had left me behind.

    I opened my mouth to express my lament
    And words of regret poured out in a torrent:
    I'd never once told all the ones that I loved
    How much they had done, how grateful I was;
    I'd now never get to watch them grow old;
    I'd missed out on all of the stories they'd told.

    But as I let loose this tirade of self-pity,
    I let my eyes roam and take in this great city.
    The words, they trailed off into half-hearted sighs
    And I just told the man to look into my eyes.
    My eyes hold the secrets of what I have done
    And this they withhold from no one.
    The past, it is there, but this also is true:
    The future is waiting in those seas of blue.

    I pulled away sharply and fled to the streets
    While others more fortunate turned down their sheets.
    The city has spoken, her call I must heed
    For I am her champion, a dying breed.
    For all I remember and all that I am
    Is the hope and the memory of this blessed land.
    Material am I, yet not as is man;
    I'm land made in man's shape, my city's right hand.

    To the one man who cared I could not reveal
    The source of my hurt that I'd so long concealed:
    My love was the forest outside of the gate
    That those who had lived in the city did hate,
    And when they no longer could live near her shade
    They took her from me with sharp hacking blades.

    My love was the river than ran through the square
    And flooded it yearly when rains swelled it there.
    To keep her in check they buried her deep--
    She's now locked beneath six feet of concrete.

    My love was the alley that sheltered the strays,
    Old toms and young pups used to sleep there some days.
    They came in one night with guns and with nets
    And those who were lucky became someone's pet.
    But those who were not were put in the ground
    Or tied up, caged, cruelly bound.

    The city I serve is the thing that I hate
    But to follow her orders is my dismal fate.
    I'll carry my sorrows until my sword rusts,
    Until my helm shatters and I fall to dust.

    But don't cry for me, you heirs to the land,
    Before I was me, I was nothing but sand.
    It you who should worry of what is to come
    When you've killed the world's wonders and left it with none.

    You see, there will always be uses for sand
    So tell you me: Will the same hold true for man?