Hammill Peter - Still Life lyrics

Citadel reverberates to a thousand voices, now dumb: What have we become? What have we chosen to be? Now, all history is reduced to the syllables of our name - Nothing can ever be the same now the Immortals are here At the time, it seemed a reasonable course To harness all the force of life without the threat of d**h But soon we found That boredom and inertia are not negative But all the law we know And dead are Will and words like survival Arrival at immunity from all age, all fear and all end.... Why do I pretend? Our essence is distilled And all familiar taste is now drained And though purity is maintained it leaves us sterile Living through the millions of years A laugh as close as any tear.... Living, if you claim that all that entails is Breathing, eating, defecating, screwing, drinking Spewing, sleeping, sinking ever down and down And ultimately pa**ing away time Which no longer has any meaning Take away the threat of d**h And all you're left with is a round of make-believe; Marshal every sullen breath And though you're ultimately bored by endless ecstasy That's still the ring by which you hope to be engaged To marry the girl who will give you forever - That's crazy, and plainly It simply is not enough What is the dullest and bluntest of pains Such that my eyes never close without feeling it there? What abject despair demands an end to all things of infinity? If we have gained, how do we now meet the cost? What have we bargained, and what have we lost? What have we relinquished, never even knowing it was there? What chance now of holding fast the line Defying d**h and time When everything we had is gone? Everything we laboured for and favoured more Than earthly things reveals the hollow ring Of false hope and of false deliverance But now the nuptial bed is made The dowry has been paid; The toothless, haggard features of Eternity Now welcome me between the sheets To couple with her withered body - my wife Hers forever Hers forever Hers forever In still life