Peter Hammill
Dropping the Torch
[Verse 1]
We play games and every move
Is noted down as a subsequent cause
And effectively chains our freedom and will to live;
We settle in to simple survival
Hanging on our pleasures grimly...
We must never let them go

[Verse 2]
Our prison walls are slowly built
Stone by stone and day by day;
No provision for escape
Entombed alive in safety
And decay

[Bridge]
Time sets around us in killing frames
Black border round our names
Our fingers lose their grip
And the torch slips

[Verse 3]
The enemy for everyone
Is everyone, inside
I feel the hand of security
Creep on me with ice-cold fingers
And crush my flower of freedom;
I've lost the course of my adventure
All the things I'd meant to do are lost
[Bridge]
There is only one flame each
To keep alive in the wind
But finally we snuff them out
All by ourselves

[Verse 4]
We set traps and, in the end
Fall into our own snares
And have nowhere to go

[Outro]
Time ever moves more slowly;
Life gets more lonely
And less real