True the marching sky has yet to be hammered open
and the world goes yattering on in the blues and greens
it has always favoured
and we have not yet seen
and we have not yet seen filling our eyes
the birds and columns
the birds and columns the suddenness and light
of the kingdom
Oh it stood so close to us
oh it stood so close to us when I was young
you’d see it shining
you’d see it shining behind trees and stones
I would run in the street
and sometimes it was hard not to burst out laughing
at the dust and the rubbish and the flies and the police
because I knew the big secret
they would all be wiped away
they would all be wiped away soon
in the kingdom
And now we are old
and now we are old and it hasn’t come
perhaps it can’t
perhaps it can’t while there’s anyone waiting
it needs a generation who will be wholly surprised
when they look up and see the stars dropping like rain
slower than you’d think
slower than you’d think leaving gaps in the clouds
over the kingdom