The Hammer's Strike

A storm is approaching that's pulling us down
Keeping our backs turned, we leave ourselves bound
Creating the tempest we're trying to still
Often forgetting we write our own will
The hammer strikes hard searching for vengeance
The toll is high for a carried-out sentence
When the gavel descends, your freedom ends
and the cost of your choice like lightning descends
All your life you've kept your motives concealed,
and now at last we find the reason revealed
Always trying to put your guilt on the shelf
Avoiding the term that you bring on yourself
The hammer strikes hard searching for vengeance
The toll is high for a carried out sentence
When the gavel descends, your freedom ends
and the cost of your choice like lightning descends
Enter the shrink who will search to find reason
Say that who you are can change like the season
Try and talk your way out, claiming life has been bad
Point the finger to Mom and surely to Dad
It's been brought to my attention
that the need for this detention
is not for you to pay your due,
but for me to work and pay for you
Confess what you've done - deceive no one
Support what you show - prove what you know
Why don't you take what's coming?
Why don't you stop running?
If this is what justice demands,
then the price is out of your hands
When you try and lay blame where it doesn't belong,
all you see is a mirror
Though the sentence you bear fails to undo the wrong,
does it bring redemption nearer?
Attorneys represent our country's slow descent
Sometimes it seems that their aim
is to feed the corruption's flame
So many alibis that hide too many lies
that lead us from the truth,
so the courts become no use
The gavel that lies in your hand
is the power that rules the land
The witness that lies at the stand
is the coward the criminal planned
(x2)
Won't someone please, please tell me
how we can let it slide so far?
Won't someone please, please show me
how we've reached the point where we are?
What's gone wrong, what's the cause?
Without enforcement, what good are laws?
What good is time if it doesn't fit the crime?
What good are judges who aren't worth a dime?
The gavel that lies in your hand
is the power that rules the land
The witness that lies at the stand
breaks the oath that was made with his hand
(x2)
We let ourselves be overrun
when we fail to convict the guilty
and the hammer's strike sets free
those who plague society
(x2)