In the End

[Verse 1]
I promise you, I won't leave a clue:
No tell-tale remark, no print from my shoe
Still, a steady trail to the water's edge...
I will keep my pledge to the end:
I intend to go free

[Verse 2]
No more rushing around, no more travelling chess;
Guess I'd better sit down, you know I do need the rest...
Yes, it's time to resign with equanimity and placidity
From the game
I can't explain;
I can't relate...
I done it all too late?

[Segue]

[Verse 3]
Now is the time for the commission to report;
Till lately, I thought I'd been planted
Trying hard to make it all come real
Permission to feel is ungranted
But now it's happening I'd like to keep it private if I can;
Last words, last looks, make a final stand
Now my number's come up on the Pools
I guess I'll board the Titanic for a cruise...

[Verse 4]
This is the time to make my status clear
Too late, I fear, and lonely
As friends and enemies traverse the stage;
All in a rage disown me
And all the pit-props shatter into dust about my ears:
Memory and conscience, hope and fear
As I crawl out further on the limb
Something tells me I am crawling
In to unknown prophecies and lives
The rainbow's end is hemmed around with knives...

[Segue]

[Verse 5]
As I stand on the boards and the stage lights grow dim
Shall I go out of doors, or shall I maybe go in?
I reached the point when I should take my cue
And follow you and your signs?
I can't remember my lines
As the prompter cat-calls
And the cards all fall
In the strike

[Verse 6]
All the pages are thin, all the corners are curled
Does the starshine fall in through my window on the world?
Or am I living out (The seeds of doubt) a chronicle of revenge?
The willow bends
As do my hands;
Do you understand?
And will you still be my friend in the end?

[Outro]
When my mouth falls slack
And I can't summon up another tune
Shall I then look back and say
I did it all
Too soon?