Paper City

I woke up with my mind's eye facing your direction
I looked hard and I saw you needed help
You're choking on paper and tape and legislation
But you can't produce one thing to help yourself

Paper city at the heart of a paper empire
You've got strings to pull, you've got wires all over the earth
Sky-climbing parasite, concrete and paper jungle
You've got money to burn, but I know you'd rather freeze to death.

You've got stacks of stocks and shares and bonds
You've got telephone and telex,databank and dateline too
But you can't produce as much as one lead pencil
Or a bar of soap, or a rubber band to pull you through

The media twitch at the flash of a freemason's handshake
Speeches are made and the punters gather round
Paper politicians and faceless company men
Taking the pulse of an ailing paper pound

I bet you know just what you're worth on paper
When the market crumbles, what will that do to you
A lot of cold people don't own the earth they lie in
Will you be all right in your green-lined paper tomb

Paper city at the heart of a bankrupt empire:
Your towers get higher as your assets hit new lows
Nose-diving parasite, I wouldn't mind you dying
But you'll take so many with you when you go