Waiting room

I dream of moving
into the cold
empty blue sky

I have feathers on me
freezing on my skin
I have dreams to live out
waiting to begin

I dream of sailing
into the night
black starlit sky

I have lead inside
the veins of my beating heart
a cold and hungry beast
tears itself apart

in the desert
the tearless trackless waste
all you do
is wait.

Afraid of drowning

Hold your head up
You have nothing to fear
I hear what you’re saying
But the water’s coming over me

We could put away
the foolish empty dreams of youth
we could hide away
what we know to be the truth
But we couldn’t change
the rushing passage of time
the feeling of helplessness
as we go beyond our depth

Make your mind up
You haven’t got all day
I know what you mean by that
But it all slips away

I can hide away my pain
paint myself a picture of a desirable life
But I can’t calm the rising tide
the whole world flowing by

My feet are on sand
I cry and no one hearing me
believe I am happily
in the shallows
swimming on my own

No comment

I’m not making this up you know
it really happens
and in my life it’s true
fact really is
more banal than fiction

I watch a million people pass by
they all have stories
dreams and mysteries
they all hope to achieve
fucking boring

I never tell the truth to strangers
they only trade in lies
no question marks or grey areas
nothing that
cannot be realised

I’m not making my move just yet
until I know where I’m at
or even where I’m going
everyone who passes is running
only I am staying

I’m not making this up you know
you can see it all around you
some are feeling ecstasy
and some in pain
they all want something new.

Ouagadougou

When I was a boy
I could draw a map of my world
What it was then and what it could be
A world without chains noble and free

And like a river
the slowmoving currents of my heart
flowed in a dream from here to eternity
no limits on what any man could be

what will hold you down
what will drown you
are the words that tie you to the ground
that cover your eyes and blind you

and the world, as it slumbers it burns
as it turns it burns itself to ash
and the whole world afraid of itself
aches to be under the lash

They close all the doors
pull down and bolt the shutters
cast out the friends once we made
forget we were brothers

and the world, as it burns it dies
as it lies it chokes on its words
and the whole world consuming itself
until there is nothing left

I will not close my doors
to all the things I once held dear
I will still believe the world is free
and in what it is and can still be.