Credit: Peter Hammill
Date: 2009
Type: Studio
Length: 6:26
citadel reverberates
to a thousand voices now dumb
what have we become
what have we chosen to be
now all history is reduced
to the syllables of our name
nothing can ever be the same
now the immortals are here
at the time it seemed a reasonable course
to harness all the force of life
without the threat of death
but soon we found that boredom and inertia
are not negative but all the law we know
and dead our will
and words like survival
arrival at immunity
from all age all fear and all end
why do I pretend
our essence is distilled
and all familiar taste is now drained
and though purity is maintained
it leaves us sterile
living through the millions of years
a laugh as close as any tear
living if you claim that all
that entails is breathing, eating, defecating,
screwing,drinking, spewing, sleeping, sinking
ever down and down
and ultimately passing away time
which no longer has any meaning
take away the threat of death
and all you’re left with
is a round of make belief
marshal every sullen breath
and though you’re ultimately bored
by endless ecstasy
that’s still the ring by which
you hope to be engaged
to marry the girl
who will give you forever
that’s crazy and plainly
it simply is not enough
what is the dullest and bluntest of pains
such that my eyes never close
without feeling it there
what abject dispair
demands an end to all things of infinity
if we have gained
how do we now meets the cost
what have we bargained
and what have we lost
what have we relinguished
never even knowing it was there
what chance now of holding fast the line
defying death and time
when everything we had is gone
everything we laboured for and favoured more
than earthly things reveals the hollow ring
of false hope and of false deliverance
but now the nuptial bed is made
the dowry has been paid
the toothless haggard features
the eternity now welcome me
between the sheets to couple with
her withered body my wife
hers forever
in still life
