FAMOUS LAST WORDS                   1989



Lying watching a square of skylight
On the type of day that you prefer
With unread books, halfplanned thoughts
A shadow of the man that you never were
Thinking of the girl at the final party
The only one who called you to dance
You knew you should but didn’t think you could
Now you’re known as the man who never took any chance

She needed no one to defend her
A sense of honour you wouldn’t surrender
She warred with your pride and you wouldn’t retreat
And this has been your greatest defeat

Now a stray song from an opening window
Throws pain in your heart from right over the street
You know you’ve lived this moment before
When ideas make demands your courage can’t meet
You put your life down as ‘just passing through’
The talent deserted, tired of not being used
And all your dreams and drama of visions
Left to one side in indecision

The future has moved to some other city
The past remains with yourself  from pity
You know your faults and your worst failing
Come back to you now in a shamed unveiling
Your time has run out of time has run out
Your time has run out of time

There are people outside who used to know you
You never believed they even cared
So when all gave up, said you’d  go it alone 
A fool to yourself that you never dared
Eyes in the mirror fading distant and grey
Looking for lines on the face of each day

There is a door at the end of the road
And you know what will lie behind
Beyond the words now stripped of code
The empty mem’ry and souless mind
Seconds are flying, you’re alone and you’re aging
Kept by your rules that held you raging
Remember  when  you  taught  yourself  how
And  said  ‘ I’m  dead  if  I  don’t  act  now’?


/// Part re -appeared in One Mask Gone, another in Melancholia.  
One of the songs whose truth will haunt me forever.///