"A Headlong Stretch" lyrics - PETER HAMMILL

PETER HAMMILL
"A Headlong Stretch"

Passage assured
On the good ship Goodbye...
Dare I raise up my eyes
To stare into the rigging?

(Preparing to go/come home...)

All we could have done
We're at pains to explain
But all our might in the main
Is only empty promise
Unfulfilled at last
Still no-one can be blamed
For breaking daily bread,
Thinking ahead.

Blessed with strange grace
And reluctant to face
Ineluctable fate,
I say I saw the future
I said forget the past
But I'll not hear the last
Of lives I've never led,
Thinking ahead.