Milked - Peter Hammill

As he milked the applause

Basking in the radiant glow

Of a limelight that burned out some time ago

To the dropping of jaws

His familiar slipped his side

Made her way to the wings

And stepped down from the ride

He didn’t know which way to turn

For she’d been with him from the start —

And in her absence his careful demeanour

And his well-structured schemes fell apart

There’s no comfort or safe haven to be found in the stormcloud night

No friend for him now as he keeps holding tight to what might have been

On another day he’d fix up his brave face so no-one knows

The depth of the chill that’s set into his bones, but it’s only here

That he knows for sure

Thinking not to question why

All the milk of human kindness has run dry

Nobody told him when the floodtide was coming then

It was suddenly over his head all too fast

And he was swimming for his life through the jetsam of his past

And all the driftwood of memory held in transitory, temporary measure

None of that can buoy him up now in the bursting of his lungs

In the blabbing of the tongue once so slick, once so proud

Now he’s counted out the time, he’s fed out all the lines

That once charmed the birds from the trees…

You want jewels?

He’s got these

Empty words and empty deeds

Not much left of the man to see…