John Cale Santies lyrics

She was so afraid
Since her mother, white with time
Told her, she was a failure

She was so ashamed of everything she said
And everything she did
For her mother, white with time

Everything around her mother
White with time and dirty
Her mother was greedy with dirt, greedy

Then she heard choirs of angels
Singing choirs of angels
Greedy angels, spitting glory on her failure
That stardust of failure

As if it was medicine that didn't work
Anyway, anyway the windows they were closed
And the midwives had locked their doors

They didn't understand

And after all, what was there to understand?
But the angels, sheer choirs of angels in a friendship
No, more than a friendship it was a marriage
A marriage made in the grave

In the shivering night
The searching of the river continued, that bullet of searchlight
That searchlight found her so cockleshell and sure
Sick and tired of what she saw but cockleshell and sure

Sure of what the world had offered a tired soul
From Istanbul to Madrid, from Reykjavik, to Bonn
To Leipzig, to Leningrad, to Shanghai, Pnonm Penh
All so that it would be a stronger world
A strong, though loving, world to die in