White Stone

Numbered, weighed, and found wanting...

A white stone and a new name,

at peace with the lord and freed from blame,

all debts remitted, thy should washed clean,

O glorious splendours of the rebirth.

...But that stone is a lump of coal,

for thou hadst a whore's forehead,

thou refusedst to be ashamed.

A white stone and a new name,

restoring the years that the locust have eaten,

again clean enough to speak his name,

oh happy vantage of a kneeling knee

...But that name is a ghost unseen,

for thou hadst a whore's forehead,

thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin...

thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Numbered, weighed, and found wanting...

A white stone and a new name,

thy lamp removed from the altar of shame,

but that name is a ghost unseen,

for thou hadst a whore's forehead,

thou refusedst to be ashamed.