Chamber Music

Chamber music fills empty halls
There is schnitzel and escargot
Frilly frocks and corsets bustle
Serve blood sausage and aged Bordeaux
Seventeen standard manipulated
Deviations from the norm
Chambermaids with open chambers
Melt for men in uniform

Soldiers of reluctant fortune
Are on the march again
Sit down, my aging prodigal
And show us who you've been

Will you show the scars that comfort brings?
Are the fallen angels calling?
Will you fall in company of kings
Or do you have a higher falling?
Will you pave The Purgatorio
With credit of your good intentions?
Will you mortgage your eternity
For a moment of redemption?

Soldiers of reluctant fortune
Are on the march again
Sit down, my aging prodigal
And show us who you've been

Ate you with us or against us?
Will you keep us in detention?
Will you dispatch chamber angels
Too numerous to mention?
Flaming angels waltz in chambers
Trouble always comes to pass
Violin concertos soothe
As the chambers fill with gas

Soldiers of reluctant fortune
Are on the march again
Sit down, my aging prodigal
And show us who you've been

Now the violins of twilight
They make their plea to me
Will you dance with them, convinced
Of their superiority?
Kindness must bring impoliteness
In the chamber, a big surprise
To your quite polite society
The bullet right between your lies

Soldiers of reluctant fortune
Are on the march again
Sit down, my aging prodigal
And show us who you've been

 © John Kennan March 2015