All This Time

I looked out across the river today

Saw a city in the fog and an old church town where the seagulls play

Saw the sad shire horses walking home in the sodium light

Two priests on the ferry

October geese on a cold winter's night

All this time the river flowed

Endlessly to the sea

Two priests came 'round our house tonight

One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying to serve the final rite

One to learn, one to teach which way the cold wind blows

And fussing and flapping in priestly black like a murder of crows

All this time the river flowed

Endlessly to the sea

If I had my way

I'd take a boat from the river

And I'd bury the old man

I'd bury him at sea

Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth

Better to be poor than be a fat man in the eye of the needle

As these words were spoken I swear I hear the old man laughing

What good is a used up world and how could it be worth having?

All this time the river flowed

Endlessly like a silent tear

All this time the river flowed

Father, if Jesus exists then how come he never lives here?

Teachers told the Romans built this place

They built a wall and a temple and an edge of the empire garrison town

They lived and they died

They prayed to their gods, but the stone gods did not make a sound

And their empire crumbles 'till all that was left

Were the stones the workmen found

All this time the river flowed

In the falling light of a Northern sun

If I had my way, take a boat from the river

Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one

One by one

I looked out across the river today

Saw a city in the fog and an old church town where the seagulls play

Saw the sad shire horses walking home in the sodium light