Owl Sees Everything

The owl sees everything. The owl sees everything. Every summer in the redwoods they burn their cares away. The owl don't ever blink. July fifteen, two thousand, there's a camera in the coat. Past the gates, past the guards, way down the gravel road. There's an owl in the clearing, it's forty feet of stone. Patigian built the idol and the old men made it home. The priest is on the loudspeaker, burn dull care, begin the rite. An effigy of straw goes up and the powerful feel light. They call it just theater, that's their midsummer charade. You don't kneel before no idol when you know its name. The owl sees everything. The owl sees everything. They burn their cares to the owl, they call it summer fun. The owl sees everything. The owl sees everything. They burn a body made of straw and they're kneeling to the flame. The owl sees everything. Weaving spiders don't come here, they just weave it all the same. The club's own books say Minerva, she's the wisdom owl, nothing more. The critics read it Moloch, they say kids fed that flame. They say it's just symbolism, just a fraternity of friends. You don't burn a body on an altar not knowing how it ends. Some read it as Lilith, some read it as a game. Forty feet of watching stone, they worship it the same. The fire eats the little figure and they call the ashes peace. Their consciences on the pyre, a two-week long release. The owl sees everything. The owl sees everything. They burn their cares to the owl, they call it summer fun. The owl sees everything. The owl sees everything. They burn a body made of straw and they're kneeling to the flame. The owl sees everything. Weaving spiders don't come here, they just weave it all the same. Hoover said it's the greatest party that he ever planned. Nixon trashed it on the tapes, then he came back to stand. Eisenhower came through before they handed him the keys. Reagan kept a camp there, the Bushes held the lease. President after president, they stood before that bird. Every one of them watched the fire, every one of them heard. It's a summer camp for kings, the powerful at play. Presidents don't kneel to idols, that's what the voters say. The tape's got the litany, the flames, the robes, the vows. The same men who run the country kneel before the owl's brows. September forty-two, they planned the real fire there. Oppenheimer and them, death built under the owl's stare. They burn the care so they can do whatever care wouldn't stop. A sacrifice of conscience at the altar of the top. Fourteen hundred acres where the powerful confess. Nothing they regret, 'cause the fire swallows up the rest. I ain't saying it's a demon, I'm saying what they've built. A temple in the redwoods where the powerful wash the guilt. They burned a little figure so they'd sleep good that night. A bigger fire's still burning somewhere out of sight. The owl sees everything. The owl sees everything. They burn their cares to the owl, they call it summer fun. The owl sees everything. The owl sees everything. They burn a body made of straw and they're kneeling to the flame. The owl sees everything. Weaving spiders don't come here, they just weave it all the same. The owl sees everything. The fire don't ever answer. They'll be back next July, gonna burn the care again. The owl sees everything.