A Voice From The Past

Call it synchronicity, call it deja vu - the new Marillion album came out this week, and hearing it in the wake of Kurt Vonnegut there's a song that puts it all into perspective...

A voice from the past
Entered my head today
Fresh and alive
Full of life, passion and pain
A voice now past
A beautiful soul, gone

Speaking clearly - clearer than the living
Talking perfect sense
Used to not being understood
While talking perfect sense to the next generation

Have we caught up yet?
Is it time?
I think it is
Enough is enough

A voice from the past
Entered my head today
Tiny child sighed in my ear
Giving up breathing in
Over and out
Over and out
Taken by bad luck and the ill fortune of geography

Common cold, dirty water, HIV
Common apathy, common crime
Perfect nonsense to the next generation

Dead yet alive
Gone but shouting anger
Gone but talking perfect sense

Have we caught up yet?
Is it time? Well I say it is
Deaf and dumbed-down
Enough is enough

Give me a smile. Hold out your hand
I don't want your money
I don't want your land
Give me a smile. Hold out your hand
I don't want your money
I don't want your land
I want you to wake up and do something strange
I want you to listen
I want you to feel someone else's pain

Deaf and dumbed-down

A tap with clean water

-- Steve Hogarth, 2007