Twisted words, hidden meanings,
Shadows on walls, reflections on ceilings,
I can’t shake the past, can’t shake that feeling,
I can’t rest my soul or take time for healing.

Words used as weapons to break down my pride,
You crushed my devotion, killed it inside,
You don’t let me fly, you’ve clipped my wings,
I’m your Marionette, held fast by strings.

I’m your marionette, your marionette,
Held fast by strings, clipped wings,
I’m your marionette, your marionette.

You can’t rule my future, I’ve taken a vow,
I’ve cut down those strings, I’m living for now,
It’s time for me to fly, to recover my pride,
I’ll take to the sky soar high and glide.

No longer a Marionette, I‘m free to walk,
Passing shadows and strangers, I’m free to talk,
But who will listen, who will hear,
Voices distant, still consumed by fear.

Those twisted words with hidden meaning,
Consigned to the past, now time for healing,
I’ve shaken the past, shaken that feeling,
Hope rests my soul, taken time for healing.

I was your marionette, your marionette,
Cut down those strings, unclipped my wings,
I was your marionette, your marionette.

I walked amongst the verdant pasture
In the hope that I may sometime capture
The lives that spilled and rolled before us
Instead I hear a distant chorus

Lives lived, loves lost, the past consumed by frost,
On icy paths well-trodden
Lessons learned and soon forgotten.
Do you hear those silent voices, robbed of dreams, robbed of choices?

I walk amongst the snowy tombstones,
Hearing whispers, pleas in soft tones,
Remember us they seem to say,
Our hopes and dreams, lives given away.

A mother’s love for a child since lost,
Does pierce the cold, forbidding frost,
A shaft of light leads one way,
Come with us, it seems to say.

Lives lived, loves lost, the past consumed by frost,
On snowy paths, and sheets of ice,
Voices glide through cold, with sage advice,
Remember them that used to stay,
Upon this ground, on which we stray.

The ice we shatter beneath our feet,
Reveals fragments of life, some complete,
Others, fragments of an obscured past,
Lost stories from an anonymous cast.

Remember them that used to stay,
Upon this ground on which we stray,
Their lives recorded only in stone,
Some we recognise, but most unknown.

Given up everything, she has fallen to her knees,
No more songs to sing or crowds to please,
She’s weary, tired and afraid of what’s to come,
She’s given up everything, she’s broken, cold and numb.

No more revenues or subterfuge, she’s taken what she can,
Her heart was sold, on a centrefold, a betrayal by a man,
Her joy confined, to a glass of wine, and a holiday in Nice,
The sun has come, to thaw the numb, and the cold to cease.

She counts grains of sand, piled in her hand,
She watches waves that dance,
Atop the sea, far from me, a lonely beach in France.
She’ll no longer trust, the men who fussed, over her looks and voice,
Her time her own, the beach her home, that’s now her choice.

You may glance a woman there, on a beach upon a chair,
And in her hand, a clutch of sand, gold dancing off her hair,
She’ll sing no song, nor sign her name, those days have come and gone,
For now her only company is a warm sun rising at dawn.

I think of her, her voice and face, memories of a distant place,
Where once she sang, and where echoes rang of talent gone to waste.
I heard she died, or someone lied, to keep her future clear,
I’ll visit that beach, just out of reach, in the hope she might appear.

She’ll count grains of sand, piled in her hand,
As she watches waves that dance,
Atop the sea, far from me, a lonely beach in France.
She no longer trusts, the men who fuss, over her looks and voice,
Her time her own, the beach her home, that’s now her choice.

If you see her there, upon that chair, watching waves atop the sea,
Say you heard me say, I rue the day, they betrayed her in that way.
And she might say, there is a way, that she might recover,
Memories of the family she left, now bereft, of a woman we called mother.

I could never let you falter,
I could never let you down,
I had you upon an altar,
I had given you the crown.

Sweet moments kept us ready
For whatever challenge came,
Commitment kept us steady,
We were always in the game.

We had no guilt, we had no shame,
No reason to take the blame,
For together we’re united,
Together we touched the flame.

They said we were too headstrong,
They said we were too bold,
And together we went headlong,
In that effort to strike gold.

Sweet moments kept us ready
For whatever challenge came,
Commitment kept us steady,
We were always in the game.

You did not falter, you did not slide,
I was always by your side,
And when your light dropped out of sight,
I kept up the fight.

You never let me falter,
You never let me down,
You had put me on that altar,
You had given me that crown.

Sweet moments kept us ready
For whatever challenge came,
Commitment kept us steady,
We were always in the game.

And now together we are ready,
‘Cos we’re always in the game,
Commitment’s kept us steady,
For whatever challenge came.

You never let me falter,
You never let me down,
You had put me on that altar,
You had given me that crown.

They said beware of the accolade that gilds and glosses,
Beware of the compliment that pride embosses,
Show humility when you’ve won it all,
For pride always comes before a fall.

They may bring flowers and talk for hours
About how you changed the world
They’ll tell you that at your feet defeat cowers,
And before you all your glories are unfurled.

And did you forget the sage advice
That many gave you upon your victory,
So many voices, just think twice
Before your valedictory.

When the day is done and all is said,
Are you proud of the way you soared?
Above the people whose blood you shed,
On the path to being adored.

Do you remember what you used to do?
Before the days of glory,
When fortunes rarely favoured you,
You’ve tried to forget that story.

Have you thanked the ones that sacrifice,
So much that you can flourish,
Have you even thought about them once or twice?
Those souls you used to cherish.

When the day is done and all is said,
Are you proud of the way you soared?
Above the people whose blood you shed,
On the path to being adored.

But it’s the little things that find you out,
The sins you tried to bury,
And no one will be left in doubt,
Of those secrets crass and glary.

Do you reflect upon those lessons learned?
Do you regret the sins and shame?
How do they shape past glories earned,
In your feverish quest for fame.

When the day is done and all is said,
Are you proud of the way you soared?
Above the people whose blood you shed,
On the path to being adored.

The man I loved still exists in my head,
His perfume still lingers on the sheets on my bed.
His face appears in the windows of every passing train,
His memory is embedded in every corner of my brain.

I think of him on waking every morning,
His imagined touch startles me without warning,
And I catch a glimpse of him in every car,
And sitting in the corner of every bar.

I miss his touch, his smell, I’m a slave to his spell,
I have kept all his things in the closet by the bed,
How much longer I cannot tell,
Because there were so many things left unsaid.

My friends don’t visit as much these days
To them this grief is but a phase,
It’ll pass they say as if like a storm,
But I’d miss it, you see, I don’t want to conform.

I want to be haunted by the pleasure of our past,
I don’t want reminded that our time went so fast,
I need to see his hair upon the pillow on the bed,
I need to remember the last words he said.

I think of him on waking every morning,
His imagined touch startles me without warning,
And I catch a glimpse of him in every car,
And sitting in the corner of every bar.
I cannot get used to me being on my own,
I cannot get used to attending parties all alone,
I want to catch a glimpse of him in every passing train,
I want his image to be imprinted on my brain.

I want to be haunted by the pleasure of our past,
I don’t want reminded that our time went so fast,
I need to keep all his things in the closet by the bed,
At least until I remember the last words he said.

They said get on your bike to find a job you like,
But Dole queues stretch for miles,
Throughout these sceptred isles,
Flay the flag at half mast
We’ve broken the mould, smashed the cast.

Down among the coal mines
No picks, no shovels, just hand-painted signs
Pits lie idle behind chain-linked fences
While miners sit, faces forlorn, on court benches.
Factory floors that gather dust,
Nothing but broken dreams and broken trust.

While they dine for pennies in marble halls,
We stare at broken mould covered walls,
Then take to the streets voices raised
Charged down by horses, broken and dazed.

They said get on your bike to find the job you like
But Dole queues stretch for miles,
Throughout these sceptred isles,
Flay the flag at half mast
We’ve broken the mould, smashed the cast

A nameless few do wither and die
For those disposable lives, the end is nigh
Thump the bible, open the doors
To the moral asylum, this place is yours.
Shut those doors, hide them from sight
You can no longer tell wrong from right.

Here is that hack in the Union Jack
Selling our futures cheap off the rack,
To the pin-striped legions of city banks,
Who convert our futures into bombs and tanks.

They said get on your bike to find a life that’s right
But wastelands stretch for miles
Across these sceptred isles.
Fly the flag at half mast,
We’ve broken the mould, smashed the cast

And what now children of the sceptred isle
Will you now walk that extra mile
To protest the system that’s kept you in chains
Or will you stare on silently at what remains.

I never thought that I would say,
The words I spoke that fateful day,
Torn dreams and crushed and shattered hopes,
That left our love upon the ropes.

The harshness of your touch that morn,
Left me both beaten and forlorn,
What future is there left upon that altar,
When trust is the step upon which we falter.

I found those letters which you kept,
From a secret lover quite adept
At tearing apart a love we moulded,
Now left unravelled and unfolded.

I never thought that I would say,
The words I spoke that fateful day,
Torn dreams and crushed and shattered hopes,
That left our love upon the ropes.

Cupid’s arrow tore through flesh,
Left a wound that’s gaping and undressed,
The blood that trickles down my chest,
Is a river now, cursed and unblessed.

When all is said and done,
When all songs are left unsung,
When birds no longer fill the air,
With songs of love, bold and fair.

When darkness descends upon my soul,
When tears fall heavily I count the toll,
Upon my naive and foolish dreams,
When nothing is truly what it seems.

I never thought that I would say,
The words I spoke that fateful day,
I cursed and swore that when I wake,
That love’s young dreams I will forsake.

The lessons that we learn from love,
Are cast upon the wings of a dove,
To float through air on clouds of pain,
To be grasped so eagerly again and again.