Forsaken Cathedrals

What one man builds, another pulls down
Where statues stood, now is stony ground
We build our heroes, play dough figures
To stand atop our walls
Then crush them up and roll them neatly
Back into the ball

One man's legend is another man's hell
We rip the pages of the sculptures up to tell
Their meanings, like we want them
To guide us through this change
Then after them completely for
The spirit of the age

We have no plans for what we're building
Generations come and go and the fortress grow higher
No-one ever saw the blueprints, no-one ever tried the system
To which we all aspire

How did they know how the light would fall
On the soft grey stone of the transept walls?
Was their vision somehow greater than we now command
In the cathode-rush of net-gain-virtuland?

We have no plans for what we're making
These cathedrals are forsaken, generations come and go
And though we'll never see them finished
All our life's work is diminished
If we believe we know the plan