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This cocoon, caught in Vesuvius' shadow
Only the ashes remain
And I waited there for you
Why couldn't you?
Here we lie waiting for something to startle
To shake us from gravity's pull
And so the sleeping hours are through
What can we do?
The tainted election, the low dirty war, it happened before you came to
But this is solution, and this is amends
The joke always tends to come true
But there on your windowsill over the unmoving platoon
Written in paperback, the key to the quarterback's room
Under waning moon
This quiet serves only to hide you
Provide you
What I knew: it'd come back to you
Take this palm, follow the lines here are written
And script out the rest of your life
And feel your fingers falling slack and all folding back
The sorry conclusion, the hole in the sky
Command what is tried, what is true
But without solution, with feet on the ground
It won't make a sound 'til you're through
So loosen your shoulder blades
'Tis is your hour to make due
Because there on the timberline
Deep cold November shines through
Soft and absolute
Only the ashes remain
And I waited there for you
Why couldn't you?
Here we lie waiting for something to startle
To shake us from gravity's pull
And so the sleeping hours are through
What can we do?
The tainted election, the low dirty war, it happened before you came to
But this is solution, and this is amends
The joke always tends to come true
But there on your windowsill over the unmoving platoon
Written in paperback, the key to the quarterback's room
Under waning moon
This quiet serves only to hide you
Provide you
What I knew: it'd come back to you
Take this palm, follow the lines here are written
And script out the rest of your life
And feel your fingers falling slack and all folding back
The sorry conclusion, the hole in the sky
Command what is tried, what is true
But without solution, with feet on the ground
It won't make a sound 'til you're through
So loosen your shoulder blades
'Tis is your hour to make due
Because there on the timberline
Deep cold November shines through
Soft and absolute
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"Caught in Vesuvias' shadow/only the ashes remain" making a parallel between the destruction of that historical eruption and the destruction of 9/11.
"Here we lie waiting for something to startle/To shake us from gravity’s pull"...trying to come out of that shock.
"The sorry conclusion/the low dirty war/it happened before you came to...". The government rushed into the war before the people were even aware of what was going on and it was a bad solution for the attack.
"this quiet serves only to hide you/provide you/what I knew It'd come back to you". The "you" being the Bush administration. The American people are quiet, so you're able to get away with rushing into the war, but it'll back to haunt you.
"the tainted election" -- the controversy over the 2000 election.
"the hole in the sky" -- the absence of the twin towers.
"Command what is tried, what is true...So loosen your shoulder blades/This is your hour to make due." a call to action. we were so shocked and scared after 9/11 we let the government take over but now we need to "command what is tried was is true" and stand up for what's right.
election day-- november???
sorry i wrote a lot of comments
But NogoodBoyo- love your name. Colin clearly was a fan of Under Milkwood, because it's laden with images and phrases he's 'borrowed'.
I think it's also about the uncertainty of the future. Pompeii was a thriving urban center, and one day it was simply snuffed out. This also explains the part about following lines on a hand. Palmestry is a kind of fortune telling. Supposedly by looking at the length and path of the lines on a palm you can tell a persons future.
there's a lot more too it, but this all seems to fit to me.
the biggest eruption occurred in 1944, destroying many b-52 US bombers during world war II and a few villages nearby. this would make more sense than the Pompeii eruption, as it fits the war and modern life references.