Gabriel Gray's Song

Batya Wittenberg

Gabriel Gray's Song

Copyright ©2007 by Batya Wittenberg
Lyrics posted by permission of the author

Here in my workshop
I do as I always have done
The watchmaker's son

If a piece needs repair
I can listen and tell how it goes
Just a skill, I suppose

I just know how it works, its mechanical wisdom
How each motion triggers the next and the next
Each piece knows its place in the intricate system
They move as the watchmaker's pattern directs

Tighten the spring and release and then watch it unwind
Place the components, there's so many out there to find
And the gears interlace
And the hands sweep the face

You've shown me potential
The others out there with the chance
A genetic advance

I can study their workings
Their tight-wound desires and fears
Their wheels and gears

And I see how it works, how it all fits together
The friction, the tension, the motion, the drive
We're more than just human, we're different, we're better
The living compete and the strongest survive

And now that I know I can take them and make them all mine
Now the wheels turn slowly, it's only a matter of time
And the pendulum swings
And the power in me sings

I realize I've changed after all that I've gone through
Don't think I can stop and by now I don't want to
It's out of control, gaining speed and momentum
Till nothing is left of my former intention
My hope of your help and my confidence in you
You knew what I was and you let it continue
It's all down to you and the truth that you've taught me
And you could have stopped me, why didn't you stop me? --

It comes down to this:
I can only be more than a man
So I'll be what I am

And I know how it works now, it's all evolution
Imperative impulse, the strength and the skill
The sweep of the minute hand in revolution
The courage to grow and the power to kill

And this is my future and this is my destined design
And I'm closer each second, each tick of the clock in my mind
And the strongest survive
And the wheels turn slow
And the pendulum swings
And the gears interlace
And the power is
Mine