the wrong dream

what is best measured is not always lost
we are not sure of what we might soon need
this is the law that others have decreed
we pay for what we owe in heat and frost
the true have long ago seen what was tossed
out of the boat by those who thought that greed
alone would guide us to the greater deed
and known the pain and had to pay the cost
we who remain are sure only that now
others will earn the wages of our work
while we view rivers of our flowing tears
it was so easy then to take a vow
but then the world entire would go berserk
and pass to us the bill for all the years