Civilization deconstructed piece by piece Thrones melted into axe and plough Babes swaddles in shreds of gowns Fortress walls splintered into sticks and tinder Embers of burning books rise with their meagre warmth.
Darkness within the empty places The smouldering shells of modest castles Dusty shards cling in battered window frames Gutted carcasses of a close, forgotten past.
We walk through remnants of shattered panes Blades of glass ground to dust By the dragging of a million aching feet And their tattered soles.
Wind shakes the skeletal remains of walls And gaping, twisted architraves Cupboards are bare, shattered shelves collapsing There is nothing here but haunted silence.
And in the daylight, we fear the empty places The smouldering shells of modest castles Where dusty shards cling in battered window frames The gutted carcasses of our close, forgotten past
In the fearful night, we seek shelter Beneath the rotting beams like crumbling bones Walls like tattered skin And with the rats and mice, we claw through debris Like worms we infest and consume The remains of our crushed cocoon, mutilated womb.