Coordinated Action

They changed the signs on every door Changed the saint and changed the coat Still the same turn in the voice Still the same lift in the throat Different masks in different rain Different cuts across the same Yet the window caught one kind of light In every frame Coordinated action That's how it reads from here New rooms, new names Same shadow at the rear The branch may split The root stay hid The glass still shows the same old face However clean you make the break Trade the banner, trade the blame Trade the wound and trade the word Still the old reflex returns In what gets praised and what gets burned You can call it family grain You can call it carried speech From the doorway all I hear Is the same bell under each Maybe no one gives the sign Maybe no one needs to now Years can teach a crowd to turn On the same old hidden hinge Call it drift or call it creed Call it history, call it chance From out here it still feels like A well-rehearsed advance Coordinated action That's how it reads from here New rooms, new names Same shadow at the rear The cuts are real The masks are new The pattern still comes back Call it history if you want It still behaves like that