Plague of Ghosts

(I) old haunts

I found a home in the darkness, found a home in the darkness, found a home in the darkness,
Empty stomach empty head a body fills a vacant bed,
And the thunder rolls by, and the rains come, and the days gone and I wonder where I am.

Found a place in the darkness, found a home in the darkness, in the darkness, home, in the darkness.

A crowded room of passers by and in the shadows strangers cry, and the ghosts try to hide,
When the rains come, when the storms form, when I wonder who I am in the darkness,
Home.

(ii) digging deep.

Digging deep in the darkness, digging it deep down deep down deep down digging it
Deep in the darkness, digging it deep, down deep, down, deep down digging it
Deep in the darkness, digging it deep, down, down, down, down, digging it
Deep in the darkness, digging it down, deep down, deep, down deep digging it

We watched an insect stray to the edge of it's world, a lily pad stretched over a green mirror
In which the ghost carp swirl like clouds before a storm.
This is the season of the rains,
This is incoming.

And when it came their was no cover, no place to hide,
Vision blurred, hard to breathe, trying hard to hold onto something that's real.
Nothing left, nowhere to go, no open road it's washed away by swollen streams,
Carried off downriver with all my broken dreams.

Digging deep in the darkness, digging it deep, down deep down deep, deep, digging it
Deep in the darkness, digging it deep down, down, down, down digging it
Deep in the darkness, digging it deep, digging it digging it, digging it,
Deep in the darkness, digging it deep down, deep down, deep down, digging it.

A tethered goat bleats from the corner of the graveyard where the lizards hang motionless as the angels of stone above them, their broken wings throwing long shadows into the grass where the scorpions hide.
The tigers are running out of jungle.

In the end I was tired of being asked if I could say that I was happy now,
As if you need me to convince you that everything's ok.
Would you take me back?

Digging deep in the darkness, digging it deep, down deep, down deep, deep digging it
Deep in the darkness, digging it deep, down, down, down, down, down, digging it,
Deep in the darkness, digging it deep, deep down, deep, deep, digging it,
Deep in the darkness, down, down, down, down, down, down digging it.

Are you happy now? you keep asking, asking am I happy now?
Why can't you tell me that I'm happy now? are you happy now?
Happy now? happy now?

2. chocolate frogs

The bloated corpses of unsolved murders and old revolutions, pirouette and dance amongst the swirls and eddies in their final procession down the muddy river to the delta where they're thrown up by the surf onto sterile beaches or are trapped in the roots of mangrove cathedrals of the islands that gather in the bay.

These are the first arrivals on this new horizon that will be coveted by strangers who will deposit themselves on these shores to build towers to the heavens. the storm will come and the rains will fall and remove their dreams and hopes once again to the waters that surround them. and while they pray the frogs will chant in the darkness

A heid full of chocolate frogs, a body full of rush, a pocketful of shrapnel and a skinfull of bush,
An eyefull of the future and a belly full of the past, how beautiful the present when you know it cannae last.

A tumblerful of voddie, two fingers in a glass, a handful of promises, a heart full of remorse,
Mindful of your manners when you're brought down to your knees,
A heid full of chocolate frogs is all you gave to me,
That's all you gave to me, that's all you gave to me,

A spoonful of miracles a nostril full of dust a lung full of virginia the needs we have we must,
A pill to put your heart right a nose out for a deal for a heid full of chocolate frogs what can you give to me?
What did you give to me?
What did you give to me?
What did you give to me?

3- waving at stars.

You cracked up too soon before the punchline hit home and at the end of the joke did you notice that no-one was laughing with you.
You were out on your own,
Waving at trains, waving at cars, waving from bars, waving from aeroplanes,
Might as well be waving at stars,

You called out her name as the darkness hit home, raised up your zippo and opened the skies till the crowd melts away, at the end of the day, you ran out of light,
Praying for rain, praying for signs, praying for time, praying for endless night, might as well be wishing on stars

4. raingods dancing

Empty churches, empty pews, in the subway nothing moves and the static on the radio is drowning out the sound of raingod's dancing,
Empty playgrounds, empty bars, I can't remember how it was before the flood when all I had to do was recognise the love that's trapped inside.

I gave it all, I took it back and in the end there's nothing left except a shell surrounding emptiness and loneliness, a core of pain,
I see my pathway shining.

Raingods with zippo's, a tinman hides a broken heart,
Raingods with zippo's, he knows the flame has gone that soon he'll fall apart,

So I lay me down to lie and with the rain my lullaby I drift away to dreamless sleep, leave behind a life that died, a victim of a plague of ghosts
I was wrapped up in my guilt buried deep within my memories, a shelter of self-pity that I know the rain will wash away, I sense the storm arriving.

Raingods with zippo's, a tin man rusts away and slowly falls apart,
Raingods with zippo's and all he leaves behind a bleeding broken heart.

(part ii) the wake -up call (make it happen)

In the end I found beginnings, not a vision, a wake up call,
Raised from the dead by a beating heart and at last I can see it all
And my eyes were opened to the darkness, in my hand a burning flame,
A spark of life to touch the fuse and blow these clouds away,
I can make it happen, if I want to,
Make it happen, if I try,
Forgive, forget, forever never means as much as it does today,
Make it happen, we can make it happen, we can make it happen.

When I wake up, will you be there? it can never be the same.
If we can take our lives slowly, step by step, we can be dancing in the rain,
We can make it happen, we can make it happen, make it happen,
Forgive, forget, forever means today, make it happen, we can make it happen,
We can make it happen, forgive, forget, forever means today,
Make it happen.

Plague of ghosts/chocolate frogs/ wishing on stars/raingods dancing including subsections written by derek w dick/tony turrell and mark daghorn 1998 copyright fishy music ltd