(Hammill)
I remember what it felt like at
seventeen:
I was a cat, a snake, a lizard, a mouse.
Still got an interest in the limousine
and a spouse and a brat,
country house, London flat.
I`m gonna head for the island when
the summer`s out,
I`m gonna do all the stuff that I can,
drink like a fish in a waterspout -
I`m a fan of the flow
it began long ago
I`m a man who should know
it doesn`t stop.
There`s so much to remember,
so much to forget:
we`re all in the possession of the
future tense, but don`t know it yet.
The flesh comes through the spirit,
the spirit through the flesh...
we look the Sphinx in the face
for answers and of course we`re
really not impressed.
We`re caught between age and beauty,
experience and youth
so we feel the need acutely
for any kind of Truth.
Oh but we get copped some days,
caught between options we`ve failed
to play, such wasted chance.
So I join the wastrel`s dance:
it has slow as well as fast movement
and any change must be an
improvement on simply fossilising,
standing still.
I got a steady vocation for
the Quiet Zone,
I just can`t wait for the song to be sung,
I`m still possessed by the promise
of the Pleasure Dome
You`re so young,
so oldd,
such a drag
to be told.
You`re so here, so gone,
so near, so wrong,
so queer, so strong
Such a drag to be told....