A man stare's into fetid gutters
And leering meriden stares back
What cleanses is beyond him
What cures?
Far above him
A pantheon of pestilence
Paupers enshrined in Fever Sheds
From holy typhus' hands
As lowly drudge of noxious seeds to sow
A consecration of inflammation
From callous soil did grow
♪
As blighted walls for gangrenous minds
For rusting spirits and fever dreams
Opiate madness and sulphurous haze
All cathedrals to quarantine
Naught but abattoirs for screaming
Lunatics with blessed brimstone in their lungs
♪
All that is dissolute and loathsome becomes his city
A byword for intractable human misery
And as they lead him through the gauntlet
The spires are reaching high, playing arms of Atlas
Belching forth their cancerous mire
Poverty's sores weep into these gaping mouths
The gaping mouths of starving child and gutter-dweller
Of starving child and gutter-dweller
♪
This is how - how a nation dies
Mile by God-forsaken mile
Like seeds upon the callous soil
Mile by barren mile
Mile by barren mile
This is how a nation dies
Mile by God-forsaken mile
Like seeds upon the callous soil
Mile by barren mile
This is how a nation dies
Mile by God-forsaken mile
Like seeds upon the callous soil
Mile by barren mile
♪
Gas lights with tired eyes
Their glare as perdition's outer circles
Rest upon him - the conspirator
In machinations with Merihem
Yet, are his maladies to be counted amongst his mother
His blaze amongst his blessings
His skin rots and falls from his bones
♪
In driving rain
From bridges o'er noisome waters hanging
He carves his words, in anguished rage
On the pillars of the golden ribcage
Withering beast under dolorous sky
With gaunt, stooped wretch plunging harpoon into the eye
Saying: "All greatness stands firm in the storm"
"All greatness stands firm in the storm"