All This Time

(album: The Soul Cages - 1991)

I looked out across the river today
Saw a city in the fog and an old church town where the seagulls play
Saw the sad shire horses walking home in the sodium light
Two priests on the ferry
October geese on a cold winter's night

All this time the river flowed
Endlessly to the sea

Two priests came 'round our house tonight
One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying to serve the final rite
One to learn, one to teach which way the cold wind blows
And fussing and flapping in priestly black like a murder of crows

All this time the river flowed
Endlessly to the sea
If I had my way
I'd take a boat from the river
And I'd bury the old man
I'd bury him at sea

Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth
Better to be poor than be a fat man in the eye of the needle
As these words were spoken I swear I hear the old man laughing
What good is a used-up world and how could it be worth having?

All this time the river flowed
Endlessly like a silent tear
All this time the river flowed
Father, if Jesus exists then how come he never lives here?

Teachers told the Romans built this place
They built a wall and a temple and an edge of the empire garrison town
They lived and they died
They prayed to their gods, but the stone gods did not make a sound
And their empire crumbles 'til all that was left
Were the stones the workmen found

All this time the river flowed
In the falling light of a northern sun
If I had my way, take a boat from the river
Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one
One by one