
Date of issue: 02.09.2021
Song language: English
The Emperor In His War Room |
I. THE EMPEROR |
Standing in the space that holds the silent lace of night |
away from you |
You think that you can hold the searing, moulten gold between |
your fingers … |
But it slips through, tearing tendons as it goes, |
Exposing the white of a knuckle … |
Flesh-and-metal forming letters in the mould. |
Cradling you gun, after choosing the ones you think should die- |
Lying on the hill … crawling over the windowsill into your |
living-room |
They stare out, glass-eyed aimless heads, |
Bodies torn by vultures. |
You are the man whose hands are rank with the smell of death. |
Saviour of the Fallen, Protector of the Weak, |
Friend of the Tall Ones, Keeper of the Peace … |
Ah, but it is the only way you know … |
Looking out to sea, a flattened plane of weeds which bear no living |
You crush life in your fist as your heart is kissed by the lips |
of death |
Ghosts betray you, ghosts betray you, in the night they steal your eye |
From it’s socket … |
And the ball hangs fallen on your cheek. |
Complaining tongues are stilled; |
a thousand mouths are filled |
with rusting metal. |
Your face a shade of green; |
somehow you try to speak through all the |
garbage in your mouth |
But it won’t come out, and you cannot frame the words |
As your stepson |
Throws your fame into the flames and you are burned. |
Saviour of the Fallen, Protector of the Weak, |
Friend of the Tall Ones, Keeper of the Peace. |
Ah, but it is the only way you know … |
Ii. |
THE ROOM |
Live by sword and you shall die so, |
All your power shall come to nought, |
Every life you take is part of your own, |
Death, not power, is what you’ve bought. |
Cringing in your room as the outriders of doom step |
on your threshold; |
Begging for your life as the impartial knife sinks in your |
screaming flesh … |
Without malice, merely taking murder’s toll, |
You must pay the price of hate, and that price is your soul … |
Live in peace or die forever in your war-room. |
Name | Year |
---|---|
House With No Door | 2003 |
Cat's Eye/Yellow Fever (Running) | 1976 |
Refugees | 1985 |
Killer | 2003 |
Necromancer | 1992 |
The Undercover Man | 2003 |
Afterwards | 1992 |
Pilgrims | 1975 |
A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers | 2021 |
Darkness (11/11) | 1985 |
White Hammer | 2003 |
Still Life | 1975 |
Lemmings (Including Cog) | 1992 |
Whatever Would Robert Have Said? | 2003 |
Arrow | 1992 |
My Room (Waiting For Wonderland) | 1975 |
Out Of My Book | 2003 |
The Sleepwalkers | 2009 |
Lost: The Dance In Sand And Sea/The Dance In The Frost | 2003 |
Pioneers Over C | 2003 |