When She Comes

Slow motion in the quiet of the room
So potent is the smell of her perfume
That you think she's eternal
That you think she is everything
But no-one knows what she is.

Repentance for all you should have said
Her entrance seems to raise you from the dead
And you think she's really with you
And you think that she'll always stay
Always ready to forgive you
Always ready to grant you her mercy
But in her own way.

When she comes, she'll be a stranger
Struck dumb, you'll try to protest
As the drum beats out the danger
Too late, you should have noticed.

That the lady with the skin so white
Like something out of Blake or Burne-Jones
Always blocked out the light
And shadowed all you owned.

Still you think she's forever
Yesterday and tomorrow...
But no-one knows where she is.

Still you swear that you can win her
And your prayer is that she'll want you
Aware - once a saint, now you're a sinner
And your sins are going to haunt you.

When the lady with her skin so white
Like something out of Edgar Allan Poe
Holds your hand so very tight
And you hope that she'll never let go.

Easy targets, easy crosswords, easy life
These key margins leave you balanced on the knife
Bleeding darkly
In the end it all comes down to sleazy bargains.

That hidden key - you tried so hard to find it
All you can conceive is the effort to be worthy
Even now you need to be reminded
That La Belle Dame is without mercy.

The lady with her skin so white
You never did quite catch her name
Now she holds you in the night
And she'll never let go again
She'll never let go again.