Dignity

Fat man looking in a blade of steel,

Thin man looking at his last meal,

Hollow man looking in a cotton-field for dignity.

Wise man looking in a blade of grass,

Young man looking in the shadows that pass,

Poor man looking through painted glass for dignity.

Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve,

Someone said that Dignity was the first to leave.

I went into the city, into the town,

Into the land of the midnight sun.

Searching high, searching low,

Searching everywhere I know,

Asking the cops wherever I go,

"Have you seen dignity?"

Blind man breaking out of a trance,

Puts both of his hands in the pockets of chance

Hoping to find one circumstance of dignity.

I went to the wedding of Mary-Lou,

She said, "I don't want nobody see me talking to you,"

Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew about dignity.

I went down where the vultures feed,

I would've gone deeper, but there wasn't any need.

I've heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men

And there wasn't any difference to me.

Chilly wind sharp as a razor blade,

House on fire, debts unpaid,

Gonna stand at the window, gonna ask the maid, "Have you seen dignity?"

Drinking man listens to the voice he hears

In a crowded room full of covered-up mirrors,

Looking into the lost, forgotten years for dignity.

I met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues,

Said he'd give me information if his name wasn't used.

He wanted money up front, he said he'd been abused by dignity.

Footprints running 'cross a silver sand,

Steps going down into tattoo land,

I met the sons of darkness and the sons of light

In the border-towns of despair.

Got no place to fade, got no coat,

I'm on a rolling river in a jerking boat,

Trying to read a letter to me somebody wrote about dignity.

Sick man looking for the doctor's cure,

Looking at his hands for the lines that were

And into every masterpiece of literature for dignity.

Englishman stranded in a black-heart wind,

Combing his hair back, his future looks thin,

He bites the bullet and he looks within for dignity.

Someone showed me a picture, I just had to laugh,

Dignity never been photographed!

I went into the red, went into the black,

Went into the valley of dry-bone dreams.

So many roads, so much at stake,

So many dead-ends, and I'm at the edge of the lake.

Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take to find dignity.