Treat me like dirt
I can take the hurt
As long as you say you love me
I will try to walk on water for you
All you need do is tread gently on me
I'll bear the burden of guilt for the world
The pain and the blame for all that goes wrong
No need for trickery to carry the load
Only too willingly I'll take it on
Couldn't you see I'd have walked through fire
Just to hear you speak my name
With the pride and the joy you used to show?
The words that we said have lost all sense
In the Babel that has engulfed me
Many are the voices saying different things
I can't hear my own in the din
Many are the lines to read between
And I seem suddenly to have lost my place
Even the unity that was your voice
Has shattered into barbs that pain me
Couldn't you see I'd have walked through fire
Just to hear you speak my name
With the pride and the joy you used to show?
Shibboleth, all meaning gone
Shibboleth, it's time to move on
Couldn't you see I'd have walked through fire
Just to hear you speak my name
With the pride and the joy you used to show?
The promises we made in faith have dissolved
In the flood of tears I have wept for you
The firm ground on which we used to stand
Submerged by your own knowing hand
Underwater held until it drowned
Only then 'Love' did you baptise it
And seek to return me to your arms
The fallen with garlands now re-crowned