Marianne

It was many years ago and it was many miles away.
The king held his breath before the dawn of a new day;
he felt the crown upon his head, the earth beneath his shoes,
and he blessed this sacred country he was not about to lose

He stood before his army and dryly he did smile.
He nodded his approval as he watched them for a while.
He wasn’t sure of much these days but one thing he could tell:
The criminals who mocked his name would soon be gone to Hell

He sensed the storm was coming soon and he made a swift retreat;
he didn’t want to be around when the armies came to meet.
He cursed the revolution as he fled the battlefield,
and prayed that God above would bestow his crown a shield

The preparations were complete and now Marianne stirred.
The People were restless and their voices would be heard.
Their message was profound; their beacon brightly shone,
and liberty was dawning in their famous hexagon

The sun poured into the streets and so it had begun,
and the hearts of those who dared to dream did start to beat as one.
The law they were defying for it was but the tyrant’s will,
and the tyrant was to fall soon as they stormed the Bastille

Marianne fought long and hard for justice in these times,
for the king would be punished for his horrifying crimes.
With the cunning of a felon he lied and killed and thieved
while the honest men of France bowed to hunger and disease

The battle was finally over and the victory was theirs,
but they had no time to celebrate; they hastily declared
that the laws which they had broken were now to be replaced,
and Marianne would light the path to a freer human race

This was many years ago but the fight goes on still,
for a noble few are pampered while the luckless’ lives are filled
with hopelessness and crime and drugs—opportunity there’s not.
And the crimes of the noble few too often are forgot

The time has come to remember those who died in ’89;
to relight their sacred fire in our own fraudulent time.
For when a king is dressed up in political disguise,
his crimes still have victims, and those victims now shall rise