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The Caretaker

from Mistakes Have Been Made by John Ludi

/

lyrics

The Caretaker

A tired old man of kindly soul
watches the broader world lose control
Pondering needs of a future unknown:
What can be learned, what can be grown.

The toll is great and the efforts ignored
and incremental things are all he can afford.
Those seeds need saving, put those books in a crate...
protect this knowledge before it's too late.

A dark ages monk scribing history,
fading words lay on a wrinkled page
the present world becomes a future mystery
found by error in a wiser age.

He tends to the smaller things:
the green ones, four-legged ones, the ones who have wings.
His own time is short and the road harsh and long,
his pride but a memory, ambitions all gone

He does what he can do
and hopes it makes a difference when all this is through.
He fights the tide, shines his tiny light
against the spreading darkness, against the growing night

The thoughtless and cruel become conventional:
barbarians squat on squalid seats of power
the damage becomes increasingly intentional,
corrupted hands ring out the darkening hour.

The cycle repeats time and again:
tidal forces beyond the weak vision of men
Unseen patterns, the ebb and flow,
all that rose so high crash below.

He will be as a ghost in the haze:
no one will remember him,
he'll pass without praise

I hope he's still out there...we need more like him

credits

from Mistakes Have Been Made, released March 22, 2020
John Ludi wrote, sang, played, engineered and produced this song

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John Ludi Madison, Wisconsin

John Ludi is a musician/singer-songwriter with a wide array of influences and lyrical interests who was "Indie" before the term even existed. Working outside of the music industry by choice has given Ludi the ability to release songs of a level of lyrical depth that are anathema to the minds of the "suits". Ludi lives off-grid in a yurt in the woods of WI and will "fight the power" til he dies. ... more

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