Before The Bullfight

David Sylvian

I hear your voice
Way down inside
A whispering sea
Of towering trees
But no reply
A silence so rare
And more than I can stand
Sweeps like a flood
Through life’s flesh and blood
And steals away with it’s heart
If I’m losing you
Then there’s nothing more that I can say
The fighting is on
And battles are won
Or thrown away
But if I could live
Safe and sound
In God given fields
Or mountains of steel
Then here I’d stay
Till you’d gone
Guilty of stealing
Every thought I own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Every word’s sunk in deep
Like the blades of a knife through my heart
But my strength will return
To fight the bullfight
As time’s come to show
I’m told nothing more than I should know
A ship on the sea that threatens to leave
But never goes
This island of blue
Where life clings to your hands
Like water and sand
Will loose it’s way
When you’re gone
When all’s forgiven
Still every fault’s my own
I will take my turn
To fight the bullfight
Say a prayer for my release
When every hope in the world is asleep
And my strength will return
To fight the bullfight