The Wake of Magellan

The lights come on
The set is down
The curtain’s flown away
To all you creatures of the night
I say it’s time we play

We’ll show you things
That in your life
You’d never dreamed you’d know
So now before the ghosts arrive
It’s welcome to the show

Minstrels, kings, explorers
Fantasies on order
Ghosts and dreams awakened
Stories long forsakened

The minstrel and the sorcerer
Are switching their disguise
The jester drinks and starts to think
That he alone is wise

The governor and journalist
Exchange a judas kiss
And now before the song is done
The plot begins to twist

Ghosts and lost explorers
Fate with all her daughters
Saints and hopeless sinners
Wise men in their winters
know

Welcome to the show
Welcome to the show
Welcome to the show
Welcome to the show

Stands all alone
Looks in the mirror
And sees what she wanted to be

Safely unknown
To anyone near her
She sees what she wanted to see
And turns to me
And turns to me
And turns to…

She was prophesied
For an early slide
Followed it to the letter

Well kept beauty queen
If there, always seen
Still you thought she’d know better

No erasing
The time you’re wasting
But when you’re wasting
You don’t care

All those pieces
In short term leases
But when you need them
They’re not there

For all those moments of yesterday
She’s traded every tomorrow
And now all those moments are so far away
Ghosts haunt each word she would say
As she walks among the decay

She had Oscar Wilde’s
Timeless sense of style
As had been her intention

Still she was afraid
Time must be repaid
And there’d be no redemption

Youth and time collide
She could not decide
On a certain direction

Time was catching up
Carefully made up
She avoided detection

For all those moments of yesterday
She’s traded every tomorrow
And now all those moments are so far away
I saw it too
Closer than you
What else is there left to say

Wait for me now
I will be there for you
This I will vow
If you still want me to

But it won’t be
This I have always known
And in the dark
There’s no one to pray for me now

I don’t understand what I’m feeling tonight
I don’t understand but I’m waiting
Searching the shadows that fade in the light
But I’m feeling alive
Trying to survive
Float with the tide
Till you arrive and I….

When you look at the morning sun
Do you see what I see
Or could I be the only one
Seeing just what I need

I envision a different man
Than the one I’ve become
Pray the ocean will understand
That my time isn’t done

Everyone’s leading
But nobody’s dancing
You stand on the stage
Just to turn all alone
I have waited this way
For a lifetime of days

I can’t wait for the morning sun
As I stand with the sea
And the ocean she understands
Just the man I could be

Somewhere else there’s a different world
With a sun that will rise
And a moon that will take its place
In another man’s eyes

And perhaps it’s a better world
Than the one that I see
Or if better for no one else
Perhaps better for me

Here in the dark where the sky shows its graces
Revealing each star while the moon plays the fool
Saying how it must be while the night disagrees

I can’t wait for the morning sun
As I stand with the sea
And the ocean she understands
Just the man I could be

No, no, time doesn’t wait for you
No, no, leave it alone
No, no, your days are far too few
This thing I have always known

When your time is up it’s true
They never give another day to you

When your time is up it’s through
No one cares how

Can’t keep it
Can’t save it
Can’t take it away with you
So I say we use it now

Times were changing
Eighteen years and fading
Ain’t a lot of time left to be a star

On an island
All alone and dying
Walk upon the water
But you won’t get far

Dreams and visions
Tied into decisions
Saw you on a postcard
From the other side

Hope and glitter
Never feeling bitter
Walk upon the water
Just to be your bride

Don’t tell me now
That there is nothing more
There is a how
Just like there is a door
And if there’s not to be another way
You tell me why
Why
Why
Why

Stay and follow
If the words are hollow
Gotta’ go along
Cause it’s all you got

Each day earn them
Turn around and burn them
Think your fitting in
But you hope you’re not

Neatly drowning
Every drink your downing
If you drink enough
You’ll forget the game

Each illusion
Wrapped in absolution
Live your life in weekends
But it’s not the same

Don’t tell me now
That there is nothing more
There is a how
Just like there is a door
And if there’s not to be another way
You tell me why
Why
Why
Why

Blackjack guillotine
Razor sharp
Always clean
Gotta lie
Very wide
Once inside she knows what to do
She knows what to do

Skin tight
China white
Just another neon life
In the vein
Leaves a stain
All the time you know that it’s true
You know that its true

So tell me what you had in store
It doesn’t matter anymore
It never did, it never will
But I’ll be out there waiting still

You’re moving fast but leaving tracks
A compromise to your attacks
There comes a time you want to take it back
Back
Back
Back
But can’t think of nothing I
Can’t think of nothing I
Can’t think of nothing I
Lack

Junkie
Credit card
Gotta vein
Goes for yards
Hypnotised
You decide
Every neuron’s changing its view
Changing its view

Gentlemen
Summarize
Every lie
Well disguised
Don’t forget
Neuron death
In the mind awaiting its cue
Awaiting its cue

And so we found it very mod
The worshiping of lesser gods
And lie they do
For lie they must
For they know it’s the lie we trust

And so we’re out there laying tracks
Wherever there’s a vein to pack
There comes a time you want to take it back
Back
Back
Back
Back
But I can’t think of nothing
I can’t think of nothing
I can’t think of nothing
I lack

Day
Into night
Into day
Into I don’t know you anymore

But I stand
Where you say
Thinking all the time you planned it

You’ve been gone away too long
Leaving us to carry on
Though in truth you never tried
Just stepped back and watched the slide

Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side

Moments on the carousel
Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride

That no one leaves
No one leaves
No one leaves…
Alive

Time
On my hands
Slips away
Till I just don’t feel it anymore

Thinking back
When I can
To the time when it began with
Bits of dreams all in a line
And somehow we missed the signs
That it all was never real
And in truth a fatal deal

Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side

Moments on the carousel
Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride
No one leaves
No one leaves
No one leaves…
Alive

There always comes a time
When you do what you want to do
You know you shouldn’t do it
But you do it anyway
And when he had that time
When he knew what he wanted to
He quickly placed his order
Though he never thought he’d pay

But the lines turned to lies
And the lies turned to tangles
And you’re pale as a cadaver
Though you think it doesn’t show
So you live with the lies
And the friends that it gathers
But somewhere in your heart you know you
Got to let it
Got to let it
Got to let it
Got to let it
Got to let it
Got to let it
Got to let it
Got to let it
Got to let it
Go

Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side

Moments on the carousel
Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride
No one leaves
No one leaves
No one leaves…
Alive

Welcome to the system
Here's the situation
It's a bit confusing
Welcome to the maze
Everybody sees what
Everybody wants to
Everyone avoids
Every other gaze
I will be your mentor
I'll be your advisor
I'll do what I do
And you will look away
Forgetting what you see
Has always been much wiser
But someone in the back is missing what I say
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Welcome to the park now
We supply amusements
Everybody rides
But everybody pays
What good's causing problems
When no one's complaining
What good is a martyr
If no one is saved
Everybody knows us
Everybody sees us
Every single child
Can tell you where we are
Every politician
Says that we are leaving
But in all this time
We haven't gone too far
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
You should understand it
It's not underhanded
It's really quite simple you see
The right and the wrong of it
No longer belong to it
So don't play the hero
And die for a zero

As he stood upon the watch deck
Looking out onto the sea
It would offer no solutions
Only silent company

So he took hold of the reasons
As he tried to understand
But they offered just confusion
As they bled into his hands

Dear god
Couldn’t you decide
What should happen to a man’s assassins

Dear god
Is it suicide
I have never been a man of passions

I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
But at night when the waves are near
They whisper
And I hear

There are wounds that bleed inside us
There are wounds we never see
They are part of our refinements
That allow a man to be

There are wounds that bleed in silence
With aristocratic grace
There are tears we keep beside them
Never seen upon a face

Dear god
Do you think it’s wise
To remember everything that’s ever happened

Dear god
Could we compromise
Or must the shadows of this night be everlasting

I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
As I contemplate this stand
What I do
Is who I am

I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
But at night when the waves are near
They whisper
And I hear

Don’t see the storms are forming
Don’t see or heed the warning
Don’t hear the sound of tyrants
Surrounded by the silence

Columbus and magellan and de gama
Sailed upon the ocean
In a world of ignorance
With thoughts so primitive
That men were killed
With no more will
Than that they simply had the notion
But in this world of heartless men
This thing they never did

Don’t hear it
Don’t hear it
Don’t hear it
Don’t hear it

Got to keep it underground
Pretend you never heard a sound

If they find it kill it blind it
If they find it kill it blind it

Lord tell me what is to be
Lord tell me what is to be

They whisper and I hear

Don’t want to walk upon the water
Don’t want to look across the waves
Instead of seeing hills of water
I just see markers on their graves

But in the fading of a season
To look across an empty sky
For a forgotten childhood reason
To once more wish that you could

Close your eyes and just believe again
There’s a god does he remember when
We were young and faith was not pretend

Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore

And in the night he sees the ocean
Carve its thoughts upon the shore
For in the way it was created
It can do this and nothing more

And every message it would leave him
The next wave carefully erased
As the tears that passed between them
Were so real that you could

Close your eyes and just believe again
There’s a god and he remembers when
We were young and faith was not pretend

Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore

And all at once the waves were getting higher
And as they crashed I thought I heard them say
There’d be a time when men would all be wiser
When everyone, everyone,
Yes everyone is
Saved

Standing alone by the edge of a river
He’s traded his life for a glass full of tears
The bargain was quick for one’s life is less dearer
When the sand’s running out and the ending is near

The ending is near
The ending is near
The ending is…
*
The man climbed aboard and set sail for the ocean
He put on the mast all the canvas she’d take
Then laid himself down on the deck neath the tiller
The ship was his coffin this moment his wake

Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Time is a treason
That I give back to you now

The wind touched the sail and the ship moved the ocean
The wind from the storm set the course she would take
From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean
From the wake of magellan to magellan’s wake

Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Everything in it
Hours and minutes
You take tomorrow
Because it means nothing
To me
To me
To …

In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land

In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land

And there in the waves
Was a man in his grave
That he saw in the night
‘Tween the flashes of light
And he
Could not be there

And all he had prayed
Or had given away
He now found to be wrong
In the grip of the storm
And he
Could not be there

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

And all at once the heavens bled their fire
The anchor broke the chains they flew away
And suddenly the waves were reaching higher
And in the dark I thought I heard them say

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

Everything I ever had for one more tomorrow
Everything I ever had for just one more night
And if this is not to be I pray could I borrow
Just another final hour onto my life

Did you ever really want to
Did you ever really want to

Lord, tell me how it will be
Lord, tell me how it will be

Standing once more by a boat on a river
He pushes it off while he stays on the land
And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer
Which someone had refilled by hand

And somewhere that boat’s now adrift on the ocean
The mast at full sail and there’s no one on board
The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean
Only his footprints all alone on the shore
And soon they’re no more
No more
No more