Threads

Lately, you've been speaking too much
There's a sword above your head
Hanging by a single horse hair
You better be straight, or else you're dead

The common becomes old-fashioned
Some condemned are given applause
While the cycles repeat repeat
The beast its bone gnaws in its jaws

There's a hand that gives
There's a hand that takes
We try to face each other
Hanging by a thread
Hanging by a thread
Hanging by a...

Gone the laurel, gorse and heather
Even the wild beasts are helpless here
While that fire spreads its greedy course
Way beyond the limits of fear

A boy on a swing swings to the blue
Farther and farther as he goes
Up, down, up, down, until the leap
Let's go his body, so too his soul

There's a hand that gives
There's a hand that takes
We try to face each other
Hanging by a thread
Hanging by a thread
Hanging by a thread

My friend says he lives in limbo
It's boring, neither hot nor cold
He's too old now for the young ones
And way too young still for the old

A waitress in a shadowed doorway
She breaks the morning with a Lucky
While inside Louis sings so sweet
Of the sunny side of the street

There's a hand that gives
There's a hand that takes
We try to face each other
Hanging by a thread
Hanging by a thread
Hanging by a