Winchester Diver

Breaking the stone
A thousand years, an underfall
The water's edge is closer than you think
Surface tension falling as the air is taken in.

Beneath the walls all light has gone
Like the passage of a mine whose seam is unknown
He worked each drift by hand alone
Sand and water and blood and stone.

He hadn't much of a story to tell
Just how he stopped the walls from falling
Making a stand made solid ground.

Two worlds apart.

The people say their Sunday prayers
Music fills the vaulted space
The organ covers up the hammer falls.

But the water's edge is closer than you think
You could see it in his staring eyes
The dripping shell
The lower parts of Hell are just beneath you.

He hadn't much of a story to tell
Just how he stopped the wall from falling down
Making a stand made solid ground.