Masquerade
See his face, sweet
lady, and see as a dream dies. Watch as he turns his back on a world that
doesn't care to learn that he is a man, and can be loved as any other.
Part One: Ancient History
It was long time ago,
in a far away place,
But the events of
that day have left their trace.
It's time to escape,
break out of this hell,
The hatchling emerges,
shakes off its shell.
All the games I played
All the promises I made
All the wars I've waged
Were they all just a part of the
Masquerade?
Could I have been so
badly wrong,
Trapped in the lies
for oh, so long?
Alone in a world of
despair and deceit,
Lonely, moonlit,
self-defeat.
All the times I've strayed
All the tricks I played
All the friends I've gained
Were they all just a part of the
Masquerade?
Part Two: Lessons
Don't be afraid to
say goodbye, don't be afraid to cry,
Let the teardrops
fall to the ground,
The past's a release,
where you always find peace,
In a memory's silent
sound.
Don't be afraid to say
goodbye, the blissful havens must be put by,
In their graves
coldly laid,
Life is the now, and
these memories that prowl,
Are all just a part
of the Masquerade...
Interlude: Recognition
Would that I had a
thousand years, that each moment could be spent gazing into the sparkling
windows of your soul; and I might for a brief moment remember, in the fires of
eternal torment, for I shall surely never achieve the heights destined for such
an angelic countenance.
Part Three: Demons and Angels
She's the one who'll
make you fly,
She's the spit back
in their eye,
She's the one who'll
let you fight the fight.
When your chips are
on the floor
And they claw your
heart for more,
She'll drag you back
from the brink of night
"She's a girl, she's just a
girl,
A pretty girl, yet just a
girl."
But to me she is redemption
Like a key for a lock
she's tailor made,
A portal out of the
escapade,
A guiding light for
the renegade,
A way out of the
Masquerade.
Rest here beside her, don’t
make a sound,
Share the night with your
lover till the dawn comes around,
Be there beside her, rest on
the floor,
There with your lover for a lifetime
and more,
Lay down beside her, in the
world that you've made,
Just one more part of the
Masquerade.
"It's just line, a line or
so,
A pretty line, just a line you
know,
A line that's only true
Tomorrow"
Part Four: Tomorrow
Tomorrow.
A resting place for fools.
Slag heaps for schools.
Where we all must find
A pack of useless lies.
Where every good dream dies and
all hopes must pale.
I don't know all of the
answers
I'll roll the dice and take
my chances.
Now.
Tomorrow.
A cemetery of lies.
A new headstone arrives,
For every hope that's born.
A road that never ends,
Where everybody sends,
Each excuse they spawn.
I won't take that for an
answer,
I'll flip the coin and take
my chances.
Now.
Tomorrow.
What kind of a fool
do they take me for?
I give it all, but
they want more.
I don't want all of
the answers,
Take the short straw
and take my chances.
Now.
Tomorrow,
Tomorrow never comes.
Just one of the slums
Where our souls decayed.
A pile of broken plans.
A million scrabbling hands.
Trying to escape the
Masquerade.
Interlude: Risks
Though they go mad
they shall be sane.
Though they sink
through the sea they shall rise again.
Though lovers be
lost, love shall not.
And Death shall have
no dominion.
Part Five: The Edge
Adam questions
becoming the bad guys…
You’ve read the words
you allege,
Followed every sign,
Now you’re walking on
the edge,
Treading on that
fine, fine line,
Between hero and
them.
Morgan questions
whether she’s falling for the right side…
You’ve read the words
you allege,
Followed every sign,
Now you’re walking on
the edge,
Treading on that
fine, fine line,
Between hero and
them.
Paul wonders whether
he’s searching in the right direction…
You’ve read the words
you allege,
Followed every sign,
Now you’re walking on
the edge,
Treading on that
fine, fine line,
Between hero and
them.
Part Six: Legends
A golden smile looks
down from a statue in the station,
Just one more
perpetrator in the crimewave of deception.
One instance of a lie
that will recieve no litigation,
And they wonder why
this life get's such a bad reception.
The Masquerade goes on,
We must all be resigned,
To have the legends of their lifetime
Imprinted on our minds.
The harmonies of life
are pumped straight to our feet
So we can treat the
crap with mindless meek acceptance.
We get danced along
life's highways, guided homeward by the beat,
Letting go of
childhood's freedoms with too little reluctance.
The Masquerade goes on,
We have nothing left but signs,
That the future we will see
Will be echoes of better times.
Part Seven: The Struggle
Man is born, man must
die
Man must strive to
reach the sky.
Life goes up, life
goes down,
We must relish every
sound.
For through it all -
Life goes on.
Life goes on, life's
a dream.
We must laugh, and we
must scream,
We must dance, and we
must shout,
Throw back our heads
and let it all out.
Whilst all around -
Life goes on.
We must live for the moment
We must bleed each second dry
We must take what we can get
Can't afford to be shy
We must find the truth in ourselves
And avoid the lies that have decayed
Shake off the falsehoods in which we were
clothed
We must strive to be free of the
Masquerade.
We must plough
through life's mysteries
Take our lives in our
own hands
We must seize all of
life's pleasures
As we dance across
the sands
Of time, whilst
Life goes on.
Interlude: Shadows
When all around is
darkness, when the gloom hides the good book, and the mist muffles the echoes
of half-remembered beseechings; when the shadows hug the earth in a mistress'
embrace; when the cowled riders lurk in the dim corners of the soul, awaiting
the unsuspecting, Masquerading as a future; then, look for the one last
lighthouse on the shores of despair - see in its glow the eyes of your one
childhood hero, see the disappointment in your imminent surrender, and call out
'Help me, save me. Show me deliverance on this night of dark prayers.’
Part Eight: Night of Dark Prayers
In the war against
the darkness there has to be a beacon of light,
There has to be
someone to hold the torch of truth aloft and vanquish the night.
To stand against the
soulless and shout back in their face:
'I was born in
freedom, I have no predetermined place.'
To remind the world
that good and bad must always come in pairs,
To lead the way,
against the grey, on a night of dark prayers.
It's just a scream in
the dark, it's just a dance in the night,
It's just a call for
deliverance, and a midnight hero's fight,
It's a single
saviour, saving a world that never cares
It's merely one man's
mission, on a night of dark prayers.
The time has come for
one to stand, and hold aloft that torch of truth,
Alone upon the
windswept clifftop, and as such stand as proof,
That the individual's
life's their own, they control their very fate.
The option there, to
stand alone, is what makes us all great.
To stand straight and
walk tall, despite the array of shell-shocked stares
Is the thing that
marks the one we hark, on this night of dark prayers.
It's just a scream in
the dark, it's just a dance in the night,
It's just a call for
deliverance, and a midnight hero's fight,
It's a single
saviour, saving a world that never cares
It's merely one man's
mission, on a night of dark prayers.
Our forefathers
fought the simpler wars, for they knew well which foes to fight,
They took the fields
against banners of darkness, surged out against the encroaching night,
We've no Somme, no
war-torn lands, we war upon ourselves.
Sinking deeper into
the blank, grey mire, as into our souls we delve,
We produce the mindless
paper machine and doing so pays our fares,
For Charon's boat
ride, 'cross the styx, on a night of dark prayers.
It's just a scream in
the dark, it's just a dance in the night,
It's just a call for
deliverance, and a midnight hero's fight,
It's a single
saviour, saving a world that never cares
It's merely one man's
mission, on a night of dark prayers.
He stands alone as the new sun rises,
Waging his own little war of surprises,
Not content to succumb to all the petty
banality
He makes war by word and deed on the grey
mentality.
Leads the legion of light on the victory
parade,
The harlequin leader of the Masquerade.
So now he must come
and gather the horde with one harsh trumpet call,
Before it echoes
forever across the land where no shadows ever fall.
The army must gather
against the citadel of blight,
Armed only with a
sense of themselves, girded in imagination for the fight,
It is time for us all
to rise up, to show the world who really cares,
To follow the
torchlit hero. The Knight of Dark Prayers.
Part Nine: Priorities
Betrayed,
serenade, evade, crusade, unafraid, arcade, relayed, frayed, delayed,
Part Ten: Ghosts
“It's getting near to
midnight, hear a banshee in my ear.
Can't see a horde of angels,
can't see heaven drawing near.
Don't feel a Holy
rapture, nor see the blinding light,
The only thing as I
wake is the ghost of ecstasy tonight.
I've been sleeping on
my own, only loving in the dream,
Sharing the night
with your echo, and a silent soul deep scream.
There's a hollow
where you lay, before the misery and blight,
Now's there's just a
cold, cold memory, and the ghost of ecstacy tonight.
We were Romeo and
Juliet, lovers 'til the end of time,
I spend these nights
alone in solitude and crying.
I was the guardian of
love, always ready for the fight,
Now I'm the warden of
yesterday, the ghost of ecstacy tonight.
I see the hollow days
through, calling it life is a lie,
My walking death was
started on the day I said goodbye,
It was such a painful
lesson, but what I needed in the fight,
To throw away the
Masquerade, become the ghost of ecstacy tonight.
Part Eleven: Miracle of Life
I see children in the
snowdrifts, icy tears upon their cheeks,
I see spiteful slaps
and punches, silence when the teacher speaks,
Hear the calls of
children playing, faces turned up to the sun,
And I can't wait for
springtime, when my lover has a son.
Like a picture in the stormclouds that
suddenly is clear
Like the thunder of my heartbeat whenever
she is near
Like looking up to her eyes, asking her to
be my wife,
This will be a wonder, the Miracle of
Life.
I see shoolboys
dressed as soldiers, schoolgirls playing with their hair,
Hear the tales of
knights and princes, see their dreams fly in the air,
Watch them playing in
the raindrops, see them dancing in the water,
And I can't wait for
springtime, when my lover has a daughter.
Like a picture in the stormclouds that
suddenly is clear
Like the thunder of my heartbeat whenever
she is near
Like looking up to her eyes, asking her to
be my wife,
This will be a wonder, the Miracle of
Life.
I see mudstrewn brand
new haircuts, trousers torn out at the knee,
I see shoes left on
the sand-dunes, a figure running to the sea,
I see favourite old
teddy-bears, discarded for new toys,
And I can't wait for
springtime, when my lover has a boy.
Like a picture in the stormclouds that
suddenly is clear
Like the thunder of my heartbeat whenever
she is near
Like looking up to her eyes, asking her to
be my wife,
This will be a wonder, the Miracle of
Life.
I see dolls laid in
the hallway, ponies lying by the beds,
I see angels with no
shoes on, pretty ribbons on their heads,
I see make-up kits
and brown eyes, their minds are all awhirl,
And I can't wait 'til
springtime, when my lover has a girl.
Like a picture in the stormclouds that
suddenly is clear
Like the thunder of my heartbeat whenever
she is near
Like looking up to her eyes, asking her to
be my wife,
This will be a wonder, the Miracle of
Life.
I watch children with
their parents, perfect loving in their eyes,
Smiling like the
sunlight in a thousand summer skies,
Watch them revelling
in living, ‘ere their souls have been betrayed,
Innocence and wonder
‘fore the death of Masquerade,
See them still as
stalking tigers, watch them screaming, running wild,
And I can't wait 'til
springtime, when my lover has a child.
Part Twelve: Under the Mask
Its been a mystery
through history,
Used in rhyme for all
of time
That when you dare,
to show you care,
It's seen as a sign
of a committed crime,
But if you don't
mind, then you might find,
She cuts through the
strife, like a red hot knife,
A beautiful girl,
leaves your mind a whirl,
And brings you the
gift, when you're in short shrift.
The looters of souls
are rife, she brings you back to the realm of life,
Stares beneath the
mask you made, leads you out of the Masquerade.
Epilogue: Truth
When all around is
darkness, and the gloom is moving in, throw off the Masquerade; face the night
with your own eyes, and words, and thoughts, safe in the knowledge that from
beneath the mask comes a new light: the light of the soul.
Forward, to the Prelude