Dignity

Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass 
  Young man lookin' in shadows that pass 
  Poor man lookin' through painted glass 
  Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel 
  Thin man lookin' at his last meal 
  Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield 
  For dignity 

  Drinkin' man listens to the voice he hears 
  In a crowded room full of covered-up mirrors 
  Lookin' into the lost forgotten years 
  For dignity 

  I went down where the vultures feed 
  Would have got deeper, but there wasn't any need 
  I heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of man 
  Wasn't any difference to me 

  Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure 
  Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were 
  Into every masterpiece of literature 
  Blind man breakin' out of a trance 
  Puts both hands in the pockets of chance 
  Hopin' to find one circumstance 
  Of dignity 

  Footprints runnin' across silver sand 
  Steps goin' down into tatoo land 
  Met the sons of darkness and the sons of light 
  In the border towns of despair 

  No place to fade, I got no coat 
  I'm on the rolling river in a jerkin' boat 
  Trying to read a note somebody wrote 
  Englishman stranded in the blackheart wind 
  Combin' his hair back, his future looks thin 
  Bites the bullet and looks within 
  For dignity 

  Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed 
  Dignity never been photographed 
  I went into the red, I went into the black 
  Into the valley of dry-bone dreams 

  So many roads, so much at stake 
  So many dead ends, I'm at the edge of a lake 
  Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take 
  To find dignity