Sanctus (Sanities) - John Cale

She was so afraid

Since her mother, white with time

Told her

She was a failure

She was so ashamed

Of everything she said

And everything she did

For her mother, white with time

Everything around her mother

White with time

And dirty

Her mother was greedy with dirt

Greedy

Then she heard choirs of angels

Singing choirs of angels

Greedy angels

Spitting glory on her failure

That stardust of failure

As if it was medicine

That didn't work

Anyway

Anyway

The windows they were closed

And the midwives had locked their doors

They didn't understand

And after all what was there to understand?

But the angels, sheer choirs of angels

In a friendship

No, more than a friendship

It was a marriage, a marriage made in the grave

In shivering night

The searching of the river continued

The bullet of searchlight

That searchlight found her so cockleshell and sure

Sick and tired of what she saw

But cockleshell and sure

Sure of what the world had offered a tired soul

From Istanbul to Madrid

From Reykjavik, to Bonn

To Leipzig, to Leningrad

To Shanghai, Pnonm Penh

All so that it would be a stronger world

A strong though loving world to die in