Not the torturer will scare me
Nor the body's final fall
Nor the barrels of death's rifles
Nor the shadows on the wall
Nor the night when to the ground
The last dim star of pain, is hurled
But the blind indifference
Of a merciless unfeeling world
Lying in the burnt out shell
Of some Albanian farm
An old babushka
Holds a crying baby in her arms
A soldier from the other side
A man of heart and pride
Breaks ranks, lays down his rifle
And kneel by her side
He gives her water binds her wounds and calms the crying child
Her touch gives absolution then across the great divide
he picks his way back through the broken china of her life and
there the kerb the samaritan Serb turns and waves goodbye
And each small candle lights a corner of the dark
Each small candle lights a corner of the dark
Each small candle lights a corner of the dark
And the wheel of pain stops turning
and the branding iron stops burning
and the children can be children
when the desperados weaken
when the tide rolls in to greet them
and the natural law of science
greets the humble and the mighty
and a billion candles burning light
the dark side of every human mind
Each small candle lights a corner of the dark
Flickering Flame
When my neurons conspire
To distract my thoughts
Away from divorce
And competitive sports
Back to the place
Where all rivers run to the sea
Then I shall be free
Yes I shall be free
On a seesaw
In a strange land
The jackdaw sat on the Cardinals hand
And the fiddlers played
And the planners planned
What would be
On a back seat
In a court room
Sat Molly Malone with Leopold Bloom
'Til the police came down
With a new broom
And swept them clean
Like Geronimo
Like Quinn the Eskimo
Like the Blackfoot
And like the Arapaho
Like Crazy Horse
I'll be the last one
To lay down my gun
On the open road
In a bar room
A pick up band plays a new tune
When the coloured girl sings
I feel my heart bloom
When a new song
Hits the right note
When a clearing sky
Saves an old boat
When an insight
Strikes the mote
From mine own eye
chorus
Just out of sight
Beyond the next range
I feel the heat
Of a flickering flame
On an African Plain
By a thorn tree
My old friend Philippe
Is waiting for me
Que cera cera
What ever will be
Will be
When a friend dies
And the tears rise
From that deep well
That never runs dry
And the women break their bracelets
And the men take their whiskey outside
In a petit theatre
On the Rue St. Denis
The red velvet curtain
Draws back to reveal
The place where the dark side
Meets the angel and me
The angel in me
When my synopses pause
In my quest for applause
When my ego lets go
Off my end of the bone
To focus instead
On the love that is precious to me
Then I shall be free
I shall be free
Lost Boys Calling
Come hold me now
I am not gone
I would not leave you here alone
In this dead calm beneath the waves
I can still hear those lost boys calling
You could not speak
You were afraid
To take the risk of being left again
And so you tipped your hat and waved and then
You turned back up the gangway of that steel tomb again
And in that street in July
When I hear those seabirds cry
I hold the child
The child in the man
The child that we leave behind
The spotlight fades
The boys disband
The final notes lie mute upon the sand
And in the silence of the grave
I can still hear those lost boys calling
We left them there
When they were young
The men were gone until the West was won
And now there's nothing left but time to kill
You never took us fishing Dad and now you never will