Richard Wright  - Broken China
Broken China    6th November 1996

“Reaching For The Rail”    (Wright, Moore)
I'm ill with a fever, I feel like a child
I lay in the dark 'til morning came.
And it's so unoriginal
That I feel it worse at night
And I know it's not terminal
But I'm near half-dead with fright
And freezing cold.

But sooner than wake up
To find it all unchanged
I sit through the day
'Til the daylight ends.
'Cause it's all so familiar
As it comes around again
The same taste to everything
The same unbroken chain
Still remains.

With morning I rise,
And 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 street below
And it's a 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.