Weekly Ludi #35

Weekly Ludi #35 is from The Quiet Earth Orchestra self titled album. It’s part of a larger theme, lyrically; The “Prophet” speaks to the masses, telling them to "slow down', get off the treadmill, and think for themselves. Then, out of sheer gratitude, the masses try to kill him. Same old story, basically.


https://soundcloud.com/john-ludi/slow-down


Look up from your duties and peer beyond the haze,
do you see the years that you've spent running through a maze?
Are you a bit part player on an empty stage,
attending to the ritual and pacing in your cage?
Look all around you now and tell me what you see:
millions of voiceless machines pretending they are free
whose every fleeting notion is written as in stone,
fleeing from the uncertain and fearing the unknown.
All eyes upon you as you waver on the edge.
All jaundiced observations as you stare down from the ledge.
So whose life are you living and by whose unspoken rules?
Why did you pass your future into the hands of fools
who trod down well-worn paths yet never found their way?
Why do their listless echoes inform your life today?
All eyes upon you as you waver on the edge.
All jaundiced observations as you stare down from the ledge.
And sudden gasps of shock as their eyes raise to the sky,
as you throw off your chains, spread your wings and fly!
An angry crowd has gathered, they're calling out my name,
a mob of naysayers who shoot down every claim.
Behind them stand all those who forged all their chains,
(keeping it all the same).
I back away to flee but there's nowhere to turn.
Smoke wafts in the breeze as my books start to burn.
All the words now just forgotten, mocked and spurned.
(The pattern always returns.)
And as I struggle, to a platform I am led,
with handcuffs on my wrists and a hood over my head.
I call for help but the fickle faithful have all fled
(they only value you when you're dead).