The Game Pieces

(album: The Wood And The Wire - 1999)

We are the game pieces
We see what comes to pass
You can bury us in your earth
Or plate us behind glass

You think we're in the hands
Of the frightened or the clever
But the game pieces know
And the game goes on forever

It came about one night, mist was on the water
Everything was still, still for miles around
Darkness won her day but other eyes were watching
Into the Lewis night from the water crawled a man

All hands were lost as the vessel took on water
Panic shook the decks leaving no-one in command
He'd seen a velvet bag floating in the moonlight
He lay alive and thankful that he had it in his hand

Cutting of a knife, last words stifled
The killer took his money and rifled through his clothes
Then he found the bag with the many staring faces
Holding up a figure now he swallowed hard and froze

We are the game pieces
We see what comes to pass
You can bury us m your earth
Or plate us behind glass

You think we're in the hands
Of the frightened or the clever
But the game pieces know
And the game goes on forever

They caught up with a man many years later
Blood still on has hands, thunder in his eye
They bound him up in chains, pointed to the gallows
He told the strangest tale on the day he was to die

Told them of a sailor whose life he had taken
Told them of the bag he'd committed to the clay
Told them of the strange gods' black eyes shining
They shivered then they said, in the ground is where they stay

We are the game pieces
We see what comes to pass
You can bury us in your earth
Or place us behind glass

You think we're in the hands
Of the frightened or the clever
But the game pieces know
And the game goes on forever

Now digging on the land a crofter found a jacket
Muddy torn and faded, just a purple hue
Came across the pieces scattered in their chamber
Like finding gold to the man without a shoe

Valued as a lot the hammer moves them on and on
Sold to a name, they stand and they wait
Silent air around, none to touch them
A law unto themselves only moved by hands of fate

We are the game pieces
We see what comes to pass
You can bury us in your earth
Or place us behind glass

You think we're in the hands
Of the frightened or the clever
But the game pieces know
And the game goes on forever