I walked through Oxford under March rain
Stone towers speaking in a borrowed name
Gold in the windows, bells through the mist
History shining with an iron fist
Above the gate on a weathered shield
Lion with unicorn chained and sealed
Silver throat under a golden chain
Beauty arranged to resemble reign
What a shame
What a shame
What a shame
And Thames kept moving, sad and strange
It had outlived every shame
You fought with swords
Scotland built the flame
You kept the shame
We kept the name
You wrote your rule in iron and flames
The river kept running beyond what you said
They changed crests
You Celebrated your shame
Unicorns are born for us to celebrate
North into heather
Into cobalt air
Scotland spoke up in an answered prayer
Thistle and Song
Wind and channel
The wild still talks
Through our body and cells
I thought of boardrooms where the makers fall
Hands off the door
names off the wall
Seats can be taken
Titles can rust
Vision returns when vision is just
Some leave in silence
Some leave in flames
Some come back stronger
Rename the game
You bought the room
We built the flame
You kept the name
We kept the flame
You wrote your rule in iron and flames
The river kept running beyond what you said
They removed the person
Vision walked away
Unicorns are born for us to celebrate
Take the chair
Take the seal
Take the portrait, make it real
Hang your power in a gilded frame
It still can’t think
It still can’t dream
Take the boardroom
Take the throne
Vision like this grows stale and bored
What you can capture is never the source
You can slow the river
You can’t change its course
Without changing the ecosystem
That feeds us all
You bought the room
We built the flame
You kept the crest
We kept the name
You polished the crown, you counted the cost
You learned too late what power had lost
They removed the person
Vision followed them
The unicorn steps from the crest unchained
Back through Oxford
Evening tide
Old stones glowing
Worn by time
Some signs fade and some remain
Some are remade when we name ancestral pain
Under the sky through mist and rain
I felt that silver throat speak again
Unchain
Unchain
Unchain
Release the ancestral shame
