Lyrics All the Old Heroes - Joseph Arthur

Come yonder old stranger the tooth and the dagger
You stagger and then you are saved
Grow fonder the manger in truth and in danger
Of forgetting mistakes that you've made

Eyes like mine blinking and endlessly drinking
Letting the warlords inside
Fall in like mice into fires of ice
In death we find places to hide

All the old heroes are like children to me now
As I come to burn your shame away
Without knowing exactly how

All the old heroes young babies without mothers
Left to die on apocalyptic(/apocalypse) streets
And where are these words from who spoke them before
Coming down like flashes of heat

I'm never frightened(/afraid) for death I still welcome
And death I have seen you before
I gave you my keys, my windows, my creeds
But soon I will give you much more

I tried once to hide but misery's pride
Told me you can't hide no more
So the next time you came without any shame
I made sure to open my door

Come back in my fair-weather friend
The light that you cannot control
Is yours to condemn to love and take in
Give mercy to each fallen soul

All the old heroes are like children to me now
As I come to burn your shame away
Without knowing exactly how

Love is a fix a suicide wrist
Blood with an unending flow
To purify lands soak in the sands
Of places that we'll never go

Jesus come calling we'll be here and falling
Praying for your hand to show
Catch us in mercy drink us when thirsty
Each of us falling like snow

All the old heroes are like children to me now
As I come to burn your shame away
Without knowing exactly how

Each one a cathedral the last junkie needle
Stained glass from blood that is old
And in that cathedral with (the) angels of nighttime
Pained/Paned in the window so cold

They see through your victim your painful musicians
Playing the saddest of songs
Nobody singing just a ghost without dreaming
A voice that could right all the wrongs

All the old heroes are like children to me now
As I come to burn your shame away
Without knowing exactly how

Goodbye sweet diamond the sky in the north wind
Is falling on lepers and snakes
Hello young mercy both blessed and thirsty
For solutions to so many mistakes

Without your lover your tired wonder
The south rain threatens to pour
On (skulls?) like crashing in sunlight basking
Ignoring the strongest of calls

You cannot save them without their consent
Your voice of mercy to them I have sent
You spoke through me you a good man
Grew up to listen and give me your hand
Your voice of mercy so strong and so true
It comes out in cascades without residue
Of darkness or lies in(/or) doubt or untrue/untruth
It's pure like the wind the rain and the youth

All the old heroes are like children to you now
As you come to burn their shame away
Without knowing exactly how

All the old heroes are like children to you now
As you come to burn their shame away
Without knowing exactly how