Caesar at the Gate

Caesar is at the gate

And there are going to be meetings

There are going to be meetings

Once Caesar settles in

Meetings and memos

We'll have memos

We’ll have guidelines

We’ll have new rules

All about how things are going to go

Now that we have a new guy at the top

And he’ll want to make friends

And he’ll institute a dress code

And he’ll take us out for drinks

And it'll be six weeks

Before he really chews somebody out

Because after six weeks

Even the best card player

Shows their hand

Caesar will paint the walls
He'll fill the stables with new horses
He'll appoint new generals

A little touch

A little twist

He’ll buy all new swords for the army

And cut the public education budget

New tile in the bathhouses

New marble statues

For the roads leading in

And out of the city

Statues of Caesar
Of course

Everything will be pristine
And polished

But the poor will get poorer

And Caesar will say--

‘They were always going to get poorer
The system is against them
And I can change a lot of things
But I can't change the system
The system is unchangeable
Because the guy before me built the system
And even though everything he did was wrong
And everything he built was shoddy
The one thing he created
That I can't seem to fix
Is the system’

And when we try to tell Caesar

The the guy before him

Told us to blame the guy before him

Caesar will say that we should blame

The guy before him

And the guy before him
And the guy before him

And that we should be very happy

Blaming everybody

But Caesar

Because Caesar just got here

So why would we blame him?

Caesar will buy new dresses

For all the women

And new kaitons for all the men

And toys for the children

And the poor will go hungry

But the poor children

Will have toys

And so who can complain?

And the meetings

--The meetings!

In the morning

Every morning

And into the afternoon
Sometimes early evening

We, the Senate

The great lawmakers

Who created civilization

From sand and storm

Sit there taking notes

Like schoolboys

Waiting to hear

How we’re going to feed

Those who can’t feed themselves

And employ those who don’t have vocations

And teach those with a budget

That’s just been cut in half

So the army can have new swords

With which to conquer new cities

That will get an even smaller piece of Caesar's attention

Caesar just got here

And all we have are parades

Parades and circuses

And new holidays

To celebrate Caesar

All we do now

Is celebrate Caesar

And in the darkest alleys

Assassins meet

And conference

And converse

Men with knives

Newly sharpened

And teeth

Grit with tension

From the grinding they get

All day long

Listening to Caesar

Make speeches

What boils our blood

And crosses our veins

Is the image of Caesar

Standing at our gate
Waiting to be let in

An army behind him

And our boys

Our young sons

Standing ready
At our gates

Ready to fight

To fend off Caesar

A man who stepped on the earth

And was handed

A flag to plant

We looked at our boys

And we could not sacrifice them

So…

We opened the gate
And Caesar strolled in

He came to make his speeches

Erect his statues

Slash our budgets

And make us

Go

To meetings

And what will we say

On our deathbeds

To those sons

Who we would not let fight?

We’ll say Caesar was at the gate

And we, the people
Let him in