1. |
|
|||
Cold and grey now grows the sun
On a city morning, just begun
Teeming millions walk and run on the spot
And all that’s lost and won
Can be counted in a second, and might
Under that indifferent light.
Metal fingers moon stretched strive
While Balcony emperors yawn and thrive
And do their best to hedonize
By collecting things that they despise
Golden trinkets and toys that sing
but only sorrow do their riches bring.
The asphalt tears in the searing heat
Of the rat-race morning’s busy feet.
When frenzy dawns upon the street,
Flocks of confusion run to meet
With bitter fates and tired grace
Lines of weakness in every face.
Mary lives under a bridge by the river
In a semi-detached cardboard space
And deep into the dark night as she shivers
Her thoughts turn to her imminent fate,
To retire – get up somewhere higher
On the property ladder
And the food chain
Get up where it’s drier –
To be ready when the flood comes in.
Sam Jones runs a café on Castle Street
And he wakes up every day at five to eight
And he rubs his hands together to keep in the heat
And him and his wife, well they just can’t wait
To retire – get up somewhere higher
On the property ladder
And the food chain
Get up where it’s drier –
To be ready when the flood comes in.
Sarah Green cleans the station every morning
And evening, with a battered plastic broom.
And yawning she dreams of the moment
That cannot come too soon,
To retire – get up somewhere higher
On the property ladder
And the food chain
Get up where it’s drier –
To be ready when the flood comes in.
Mr Smith lives in a tower of polished glass
That rings with the sound of a thousand telephones
But he is only flesh and bone.
And his dream is not his own -
To retire – get up somewhere higher
On the property ladder
And the food chain
Get up where it’s drier –
To be ready when the flood comes in.
As the shining towers come tumbling down
People come and gather around
They gasp and applaud with a crashing sound
As their labours are glimpsed, lost, and unwound
Like broken clocks that are tossed away
Onto the hard unfeeling clay.
And juggernauts howl on worn out paths
Carry absurd loads of diamond and glass
To society ladies glowing and vast
While starving millions wander past.
Some see themselves in coins they’ve begged
And others in a mirror that hangs by their bed.
Grey metal flesh and brittle bones
Sprout in twisted urban zones
Steel roots tearing through stone
Glass boughs reaching unknown
Heights, and when the worst is confirmed
The city will fall by its own bastard worm.
|
||||
2. |
|
|||
Drowned rats in waterproof Macs,
Soaked through despite their armour,
Shelter under parapets getting wet.
And framed in library windows,
Librarians clutch desperately at books
And wait for the storm to pass,
but the rain keeps falling.
The motorways are flooded, all exits are blocked.
No chance of a quick escape by car,
And my home is far.
I think of all that has drowned -
labyrinths and cities vast.
This vulnerability can’t last,
And the rain keeps falling.
Drizzle obscures my vision,
The road home twists uncannily
Through slender dripping glass.
Has anyone else noticed that the clouds
Are going the wrong way today?
There are shadows at play,
And the rain keeps falling.
The rain fell harder and harder
Drowning our wayward stars
Drowning our foolish schemes
Drowning our hopeless dreams
People ran madly for shelter
Buildings burst like water balloons
The sky was cracked and split and ripped
The city devoured by monstrous lips.
I have seen the whitewash waters pound
The shining towers, five fathom round
I have sung the songs of the drowned
That the sea in shackles bound.
|
||||
3. |
|
|||
And when the storm was over
When the world was new
We crawled out from the rubble
The last unlucky few
And the cries of the newborn sun
Echoed through the spires
The naked bones of buildings
Broken glass and twisted wires.
In the water ,
Lovers reach out their fingers.
In the harbour,
The unlucky ones linger.
And we know and we see and we fear
That the sea is our mother.
And the sun burns
Green at the edges
And the wind yearns
For a child’s sketches.
Lost in the line between
The sky and the sea.
And fishermen prowl along broken shores,
Casting for slim rewards.
And I vaguely
Through shades of memory,
Remember
A quickening city
Whose pulse increased
And awakened the ravenous sea.
And shanties
Of fishbone and coral
Protect these
Sea-shaken people
That cling to the rocks
And sing of faraway days.
And fishermen prowl along broken shores,
Casting for slim rewards.
We make do with what we have,
And our heads that scraped the sky
Are safe and dry
And want for nothing.
In the caverns of the waves,
No light breaks on city graves
Foolish men
Who brought the north wind down.
|
||||
4. |
Five Fathom Round demo
41:25
|
News From Nowhere Swansea, UK
Psychedelic indie from Swansea, Wales.
New album out very soon!
www.youtube.com/channel/UCU9Fx5318P4cSHzcJAmMkPQ
Streaming and Download help
News From Nowhere recommends:
If you like News From Nowhere, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp