Sad Lovers & Giants - The Mirror Test

Nobody understands our road to despair
Nobody knows what doubts still haunt us
Caught in the crossfire of some worldy affair
Only the pale moonlight to guide us

Who’d ever dream that there was power in these hands?
Who’d ever know that we could fall?
Counting our wealth by all the things we once had
Blinded with pride our past is all

White russians
Playing chess with your black heart
White russians
Facing death to save their past

Who really knows what future waits to be found?
Who really knows this world at all?
Riding the last train out of far away towns
Who needs a cause worth fighting for?

	

With golden wings of fire
He’s flown away across the fields
Nobody answers when he calls
I knew this time would come
Like winters hand of frozen steel
Riding a stallion down the hall

Seven times I’ve heard my conscience cry
I’ve never worked out why I need to live this tainted life

I cast a careless glance
Into the lake of my desires
Such are reflections on all that’s passed
And if I stare too hard
The ripples dance and call me liar
How do they know me I’ve never asked?

Seven times I’ve heard my conscience cry
I’ve never worked out why i need to live this tainted life

I’m waking up at last
With bitter after tastes of guilt
Shooting deserters we fired at will
And there’s a silhouette
A faceless shape that we have built
Scratching the dirt on the distant hills

Seven times I’ve heard my conscience cry
I’ve never worked out why I need to live this tainted life

How do i feel right now?
Suddenly I’m not sure
Slowly we all fall down
Like broken horses
	

The Green Years

I can tell myself I know the answers
Try to puzzle out the painful things I’ve yet to learn
But i don’t understand the subtle plan
And still I wonder
As the seeds we’ve sown fall to earth and grow
In a barren land

Sheltered in our seasoned hardness
Shall we shed a stagnant tear to ease our wooden hearts?
Well that depends
With our precious hands clutching painted sand
And our broken wheels in doubt as we turn for home

Melting in a dream of gardens
I was walking through the trees when someone called my name
I long to trespass down that path again
And though I’ve no regrets
I can still recall when the first leaves fall
How I lost my way

Parachuting into darkness
Doesn’t every wounded hero live to fight again?
I’m baling out
But the profiteers stole my surplus years
Am I somersaulting headlong into the ground?

      

A Map of My World

Hard times at a gentle pace
Like stone I am weathered slowly
Building on my disgrace
When I know there’s a better way
I’m falling out of favour
With every breath I take
There’s no excuse for bad behaviour
Somebody’s counting all our mistakes

I fill my head up with pleasant notions
One day I’ll just walk away

Dark nights and working days
Like spirits rushing past you 
Headlong towards the grave
Searching for a place to rest
In silence we stand alone
Until the lessons over
Many questions come and go
And still the answers won’t set you free

I fill my head up with pleasant notions
One day I’ll just walk away

Tell me the truth again
Then try to stop me laughing
I’m sure that what you say
You really believe in
My world is a perfect gray
A compromise of standards
Only conscience remains
But I won’t let you walk over me

I fill my head up with pleasant notions
How could I be sure
I fill my head up with pleasant notions
One day I’ll just walk away

      

The Outsider

They call out your name
You don’t feel ashamed anymore
Nothing can bring you down

They’ve found you at last
But somehow the past is ignored
Every road’s paved gold now

Party’s over
Welcome to your life
Everybody loves a stereotype
It’s a game the grownups play
But the lack of space inside this box is driving me insane

Good intentions double glaze your life
It’s far too cozy, it’s far too nice
And who once said that time is on our side
The years can’t be denied

You’ll come to no harm
And one day the charm starts to fade
Slowly your luck runs out
And though it’s a shame
There’s no one to blame but yourself
Nothing can save you now

Good intentions double glaze your life
It’s far too cozy, it’s far too nice
And who once said that time is on our side
The years can’t be denied

      

Cuckooland

Deep in the crowd you stand
Enclosed by human walls
Shelter your mind knows where

Watching the world hit the fan
You chain those psychic doors
It’s cuckooland out there

And everybody lets you down
So many crazy headstrong people

Deep in yourself making plans
You feel no bounds at all
And nobody really cares

Watching your mind expand
To fill those empty halls
It’s cuckooland in there

And everybody lets you down
So many crazy headstrong people

And everybody lets you down
I’m going crazy
And everybody lets you down
So many crazy headstrong people

      

Return to Clocktower Lodge

Old leaden spires
Holding back the beast 
Trapped in this place
I just stand and stare
Ghost of the shires 
Singing songs to me 
With feline grace
Choking my despair

Return to clocktower lodge
Return to clocktower lodge

Lost in a maze
It was just a game
We burnt it down
The ashes cloud our tears
Late summer days
Tracing chance remains
That haunt these grounds
Let’s steal another year

Return to clocktower lodge
Return to clocktower lodge

I can talk of my towering sense
Of bitterness and shame
Crawling circles of dull pretense
To come back here again
I’m not sleeping
In case I’m found out
How long can i stretch the truth
It’s cold out here

      

Wire Lawn

You walk across a wire lawn
Where bald men play electric croquet
The sun is hard the sky is warm
And when it rains they drift away
You want to be one of them
Making the wheels go round faster
Putting the wrongs to rights

Searching for ways to decieve
Wonder struck fools such as me
See how your heart turns to stone
Wake up to winter alone

The sun goes down it’s never late
And in the sky it builds a castle
A summer lawn as summer fades
We batted last and saved the day
It’s good to be wrong again
Putting my pride back in plaster
Singing the songs we like

Searching for ways to decieve
Wonder-struck fools such as me
See how your heart turns to stone
Wake up to winter alone

      

House of Clouds

Through the sky we drift and stray
Never dreaming how these jealous winds can change
Like a cancer on the ground
The sleepy lanes and towns
We were never meant to know
The clouds are closing in

Walking through the fields again
Searching for your soul in misty Autumn days
Finding secret torture caves
Where each device is laid
On a perfect marble floor
The walls are closing in

People we’ve learnt to be
Losing ourselves inside
Here for eternity
Haunting the endless skies

Climbing castle towers in vain
Staring out across a shallow moonlit bay
On the cold abrasive sands
The hollow woman stands
In a never ending cloak
Her arms will hold you in

People we’ve learnt to be
Losing ourselves inside
Here for eternity

Through the empty skies we drift and stray
Staring out across the moonlit bay

      

Summer and Smoke

Nursing my regrets
Two lives pulling different ways
Trading heartless innuendos
Worn out with neglect
Servants to the tyrant of fate
There is so much that you don’t know

I will see you again
Through the window of a fast train
Like a split second frame
From a bad dream that we can’t change

How long will it take?
How much do I owe for mistakes?
Chasing Shylock with a red nose
Children sound asleep
Slowly our emotions awake
Saving heartaches for a headstone

I will see you again
Through the window of a fast train
Like a split second frame
From a bad dream that we can’t change

      

Life Under Glass

Songs from long ago
Start a fire in me
Flames that twist and grow
Burning constantly

Drowning in nostalgia
Such a sweet disease
Save me from amnesia
In the garden of your soul
It can take control

Through my endless phases
Something still remains
Though my world is changing
Inside I’m the same

[I’m living under glass]
Drowning in nostalgia	[nothing else can hurt me]
Such a sweet disease	[a victim of the past]
Save me from amnesia
In the garden of your soul
It can take control