Learning To Fly

(album: A Momentary Lapse Of Reason - 1987)

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought, I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladened empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

[Spoken:]
Throttle friction lock set
Mixtures rich
Propellers fully forward
Flaps set ten degrees
Engine gauges and suction check
Radios set
Transponder set, recheck
Flight instruments...
Altimeters check both
Navigation lights on
Pitot heater on
Strobes on
Golf romeo-echo ready for departure
Romeo-echo listen out 129 decimal 4
129 4 listening out
Romeo-echo is cleared takeoff, the wind's north at ten knots
Romeo-echo
So, on the brake. Just be ready, it's gonna roll this time
Just feel the power gradually, and it...

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss

Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I