Van Der Graaf Generator: "A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers:(iv) S.H.M." Lyrics

( Hammill )

"Unreal, unreal" ghost helmsmen scream

and fall in through the sky,

Not breaking, through my seagull shrieks:

no breaks until I die.

The spectres scratch on window-slits

hollowed faces, and mindless grins

only intent on destroying what they've lost.

I crawl the wall till steepness ends

in the vertical fall;

My pain has sailed into the sea -

no joking hopes at dawn!

White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask

Lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark

and parallel my isolated tower...

no paraffin for the flame -

no harbour left to gain.