Archeologies from The Ceylon Press

Songs Without Music


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So Watch

 

So watch 

my flesh decay

and see 

how beautifully it goes;

like something 

asking to be loved;

like you, 

too shy to ask me

to your room;

marks that will survive 

are marks on skin and mind:

not you with me,

not face to face;

and only this,

a last decay

pitching to hide itself

when each 

has gone their way.

 

 

Cause

 

Under empty skies

air finds no flags;

people march 

but the banners

are burnt;

 

the world

is bleeding into  hell,

and into hell

the world

betrayed.

 

My fist is flat,

the truth is traded;

there is nothing left 

to kill for

or to honour.

 

the world

is bleeding into  hell,

and into hell

the world

betrayed.

 

Angel

 

I bought a glass palace in Paradise

with a pool and fifty rooms;

and off its slender flagstaff

I can fly to the moon.

 

I’m god in the city, god in the town,

I came from hell but I’m here;

from nighttime to nightfall

my parties do not end.

 

I’m alive and free so look at me

I dream at the top of the sky;

my fingertips are strips of jade -

there’s no way I can die.

 

I’m god in the city, god in the town,

I came from hell but I’m here;

from nighttime to nightfall

my parties do not end.

 

Welcome, roll up, welcome,

watch kings and princes sigh;

they beg to use my golden wings.

they beg to learn to fly.

 

I’m god in the city, god in the town,

I came from hell but I’m here;

from nighttime to nightfall

my parties do not end.

 

 

City of Fear

 

Last night I flew over the city of fear;

dark coated people came down the streets;

they had angel eyes and shrank from light;

they looked at me and wished to fly -

but they couldn’t grow wings.

 

And in the end

it’s the end that living’ about;

they do not know how to go

they can escape no more

they have turned to salt

inside the doorways

of this city of fear.

 

Moon high, my rocket feathers carry me free

I see the late night-clubs open up,

the curtains of private room drift apart;

the battle’s over, but in coloured light,

the battle starts again.

 

And in the end

it’s the end that living’ about;

they do not know how to go

they can escape no more

they have turned to salt

inside the doorways

of this city of fear.

 

People wait with wet wide eyes 

but the gods have gone,

the night goes on;

coins rattle in their mouths

the gates have closed.

 

And in the end

it’s the end that living’ about;

they do not know how to go

they can escape no more

they have turned to salt

inside the doorways

of this city of fear.

 

 

Heros

 

Come kill the heroes,

tear the faces from the walls;

there’s no misleading

leads us closer

to Hell.

 

In every street, in every room

their faces stare, they take the air,

they grin and cheat and stir us;

they’ll do anything for us;

live our lives the way we want,

the heroes.

 

Pictures in magazines

blow up their public lives;

the roles they play

kill for us

and lie.

 

In every street, in every room

their faces stare, they take the air,

they grin and cheat and stir us;

they’ll do anything for us;

live our lives the way we want,

the heroes.

 

Wars won in cinemas

are all we never were;

and all we ever are

just turns 

to dust.

 

In every street, in every room

their faces stare, they take the air,

they grin and cheat and stir us;

they’ll do anything for us;

live our lives the way we want,

the heroes.

 

 

River

 

Night-time holds me down and empty

open to the flood;

nothing stops the river breaking in,

stops the river

breaking me.

 

Not sleeping, not waking,

I’m trapped in the dark –

cold shadows surround me

closing around me;

it’s the dream world

of a lost world

of a world that never was.

 

Faces, and the colours tasted

turn the years I have not lived;

take the lost road back,

take the road

unsaid.

 

Not sleeping, not waking,

I’m trapped in the dark –

cold shadows surround me

closing around me;

it’s the dream world

of a lost world

of a world that never was.

 

 

 

Cold City

 

In rooms and bars the city through

I see you face the same;

every word and touch we make

recalls our needs again.

 

There’s no time for holding back

no time enough for fear,

and if you wait forever

there’ll just be nothing there.

 

Yet when love moves and speaks

its eyes are flat and closed;

and every time we want to give

it suddenly lets go.

 

There’s no time for holding back

no time enough for fear,

and if you wait forever

there’ll just be nothing there.

 

We scare of loving, loosing dreams

with this love that must not say

with this love that cannot ever

declare itself again.

 

There’s no time for holding back

no time enough for fear,

and if you wait forever

there’ll just be nothing there.

 

So hold me on your fi...

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Archeologies from The Ceylon PressBy David Swarbrick @ The Ceylon Press