Shah Of Shahs Lyrics - Sparks Of Ancient Light - Al Stewart

After these processions comes the sweeping up 

The rag and bone possessions, an old tin cup 

The army trucks have hauled away the newly slain 

The angry crowd retreats, but theyll be back again 

And the prisoner in the palace does not understand 

The ingratitude around him after all hes done and planned 

But if this the way that it must be then hell be damned 

If he will let them take away his perfect dream 

Ministers stuff bank notes into leather bags 

Their wives have packed the jewelry and the luggage tanks 

The word is on the street now, growing day by day 

And even the informers know the stay away 

And the prisoner in the palace is appalled by this charade 

Feeling strangely unprotected by his miles of golden braid 

And if this is the way that it must be then Im afraid 

He will not let them take away his perfect dream 

And these mountains of equipment brought from foreign lands 

Are now stacked up in the desert being buried by the sand 

These rows of helicopters rusting where they stand 

Are butterflies to take away the perfect dream 

He cried inside the limousine and at the airport too 

Where the soldier knelt before him and kissed his shoe 

He flew across the desert and the open sea 

While they tore down all his statues and his legacy 

And the victor greets the newsmen with a strange and stoic style 

They take a hundred thousand pictures and in none of them a smile 

But this is just the way that it must be now for a while 

Hes only come to bring another perfect dream