The Case of William Smith

[Hook] William holds his palm out proud Upon the Bible, lays it down And solemnly swears against it That every word is true Searching through the faceless crowd In the hallowed auditorium He sees that everyone's turned against him And his endless pursuit The saga that he spells out Has mothers grabbing children Grown men twisting mustaches As priests smooth out their suits But William hammers right along And ignores the banging gavel of The judge's plea for order In the chaos of the room [Verse 1] Outside my cell There is an oak that grows Through the fence line And towards the sun They built a barrier of barbs Flush but against its bark And still its burls unfurl Into branches strong The silver thorns that hem in my hole Snare me here through sun and snow While barbs may scar They cannot stop the mighty Oak Burgeoning upward and out This figure made out The persistence that'd been made Stopped by its daggered escape route Once it finally stands tall The limbs will make the fence fall The slowest getaway car That the guard ever saw The warden scratches his bald patches Raised his arms in the air And wondered how this happened Despite his decades to prepare In this I found the faith You'd see my sentence a mistake Discharge me from this place And reinstate me in your grace The truth will set you free one day My father promised me But I'd never thought The truth would come this way, quite honestly [Hook] William holds his palm out proud Upon the Bible, lays it down And solemnly swear against it That every word is true Searching through the faceless crowd In the hallowed auditorium He sees that everyone is turned against him And his endless pursuit [Verse 2] If you'd have told me back then That the words from my pen Would've branded me a paynim I'd have never changed a damn thing I'm sure it's shocking to your ears That the treatise you revere Would suffer such assessment At the stylus of a confrere But I am more than well aware Of how you all were unprepared To stare into the sun As a means to pick apart its flares Covenant in question And career upon the line I suffer your reckless sanctions With a clarity of mind The charges that you lay Against my character of faith Will burden you with shame When you face the Prince in paradise And He knows as well as I That the heralds can carol flat songs The refrain rate's familiar But the words just seem a tad wrong God is just a breath away He lives a kiss from your lips While the message can mutate as it Drifts from mount to chisel tips So this is it My suffering sings its swan song Suspicion sets me sovereign From restriction of your sad bonds You edit me from existence For continuity May the Lord be always in your footsteps To document your lunacy [Hook] William holds his palm out proud Upon the Bible, lays it down And solemnly swears against it That every word is true Searching through the faceless crowd In the hallowed auditorium He sees that everyone is turned against him And his endless pursuit The saga that he spells out Has mothers grabbing children Grown men twisting mustaches As priests smooth out their suits But William hammers right along And ignores the banging gavel of The judges plea for order In the chaos of the room