My Greed
My name is Durante degli Alighieri
Guido showed me the way
I remember what he told me
I remember what I paid
Ten years of notes in Guido’s hand A vanished stare,
a promised land Theoctiste's Bible worn with age A mountain hidden in
a page
He said that Pico touched the light Before the path was lost
from sight The hall remained,
the rest was gone He said the search must carry on We
hired a boat and took to sea
Lapo, Guido, and me He spoke of what the saint had known
I let him think we’d all come home
One last secret,
one last door
What is a friend worth when you want more?
(want more?) Call it faith,
call it need
The better the man,
the better the key
At Paros on the temple stairs Guido thought the truth was there
He came for what the saint had penned He came with Lapo
and a friend The priest came out,
the circle closed The hoods fell back,
he stood exposed Lapo struck first,
I struck him too The sea stayed calm,
the sky stayed blue His eyes found mine,
I looked below Towards the place I meant to go I led
the priest through temple's door He wasn’t searching anymore...
One last secret,
one last door (last door) What is a friend worth when you
want more? (want more?) Call it faith,
call it need
The better the man,
the better the key
Moloch
in the crypt below
I thought his hunger knew the road
I thought
a worthy life could pay
For one more step along the way
I called it passage,
I called it grace
I never
called it by his name I believed,
I believed
(I believed!) Was that enough?
Was that enough?
I wrote of Malebolge’s skies Of wings that carried fire on high
No grace, no rite,
no bliss I wrote How clean the words,
how calm the notes The learned hand,
the careful line The hand that held the knife was mine Whatever
truth those pages keep The ink runs darker underneath
One last secret,
one last door
What is a friend worth when you want more?
Call it faith, call it need
I made a key of a man who trusted me
One last secret,
one last door I knew his face,
I wanted more
Long after those who wrote are gone
The winged survivors travel on
They reach the core fluxum at last
A hooded figure blocks their path
He speaks in words they cannot place
The hood falls back,
they know that face
The painted past looks back at them
The dead man’s name is breathed again
Guido Cavalcanti
One last secret,
one last door
Durante, what did you open?
{strangely
radiant resolution, shimmering synths,
lead vocal holds, quiet gasp,
final spoken line is ghoulish,
frail, and hollow with massive echo,
distinct Italian pronunciation of