Reaching For The Rail

Richard Wright

I'm ill with a fever, I feel like a child

I lay in the dark 'til morning came.

It's so unoriginal

And I feel it worse at night

I know it's not terminal

But I'm near half-dead fright

And freezing cold.



But sooner than woke up

To find it all unchanged

I'll sleep through the day til the daylight ends.

'Cos it's all so familiar

As it comes around again

The same taste to everything

The same unbroken chain

That still remains.



With morning I rise,

A dream that won't leave me,

You're sad, naked and pale



And you're reaching for the rail



You took a look inside, how could you peel away

Or break the shell, the hurt you've hidden so well

For all your days.



And you're going down

As you slip beneath the waves,

Won't make a sound

Won't even leave a trace before you.



I hear an appalling sigh from the streets below

And it's creeping fear congealed in stone

That paves the crazy road.

And all are succumbing and they look so hopelessly

At the heartbreak, it's easy to deal with,

Just take these and you'll really never feel it.