The Great Escape

I. ...AND THE EARTH WEPT

I tuck you in ever so gently
Still you cried and turned from me
You stepped on my heart
I forgave you just like mothers do
From under your shoes I still carried you

Soon my body will burn into ashes and dust
And rain will turn all that glitter to rust
One last pill for the pain
Sit down, let me explain...

Why my bruises stay
My child I know you never meant to...
These scars just won't fade away
and I'm sure you never knew

I give up, I give in
Help December let a new year begin
Take what's left and move on
Fly away
Be gone...

II. A POISONED LAND

(Instrumental)

III. LEAVING HOME

The morrow winds blow and herald a time
when man will be damned for all his crime
We all were too bold, now we all can see
how the lifegiver's bleeding to death before me

I am packing my bags, I'm waiting in line
This tragedy forces us away from this land
As I board this creature of steel,
I kiss her goodbye, give her time to heal

IV. TAKE-OFF

Loud sirens wail to send a
goldonder towards the light
Leaving the ground we bathe in starlight
while heading for oceans of night

Safe in Aniara's warm and tender care we ride
Eight thousand hearts that fled the fires
For a life at a distant home

V. A TURN FOR THE WORST

A swerve to clear the Hondo stone
(Now we proclaim it known)
took us off course came too wide of Mars to
turn back home
There's no turning back, guiding units broke
and cracked
We will never win this game

From pledges and bonds, our system of suns
locked down in the vaulted gateways
I thousands of years ram through the final frontier
The Lyre greets us there

Our ship at drift into the void
Through nothingness deployed
With an empty star become aware
-our lives destroyed
Fears are hard to hide, praying as denial subsides
We can never win this game

From pledges and bonds, our system of suns
locked down in the vaulted gateways
I thousands of years ram through the final frontier
A moth to a flame

VI. A NEW BALANCE

Glass-like is the stare encircling us
The system of stars hang frozen still
...a gaze through the window
Six years down we still feign dawn and sunset
but space no light will spawn
...eternally darker

Now setting sails
but never know the worlds she's trading
where the life belongs
Mima lead the way;

Shine your light, be a beacon of hope at night
be our guide, I need what you're doing to me
Shine your light, blind us when reality bites
We so need the magic she does

I asked me a question, -no reply
I dream me a life then lived a lie
...dream me a nightmare
I traveled the stars but passed them by
for trapped on Aniara, here was I
...always been leaving

We sit and stare,
at all the marvels that she brings us
Lights the life in you
Mima lead the way;

Shine your light, be a beacon of hope at night
Perfect grace in the barren house of space
Shine your light, blind us when reality bites
Mima, save us from seeing ourselves

VII. DEATH OF THE GODDESSES

Inside the Mima's eyes, we lived our lives
Then like an arrow through this jest
destiny sent us a greeting from home, let us see;

-We have no home anymore
While Mima showed the final war
her circuits bled and fried, as our mother died
She's darkened by our sins
we begin to realize it

When I saw home so blue, be torn in two
all by the hands of her own child
Humanity; -the festering cancer that
dug her own grave

-We have no home anymore
While Mima showed the final war
her circuits bled and fried, seems she too will die
She couldn't bear to see what will be
-Our haven's dying

I couldn't them if I tried
As they all rushed to see her die
Chaos, panic, people fight
I can't see, I will not, I won't
Our way of life is overthrown
Is there really no way? Let us turn back time!

VIII. THE AGE OF CONFUSION: DESPAIR

In this deafening of silence people mourn
we've cried us a river
Who knows where all laughter be?
On whom we place the blame?
Her demise was theirs!
Stained by their disease her screen recedes
Our real eyes realized
they beguile us all with their minds

IX. THE AGE OF CONFUSION: LUST

Our lusting flesh and piety,
all coexist in the mist
Put aside your chastity,
unveiling skin, magical sin

Controls the pile of heaving flesh,
a twisted queen;
"sleep with me and work the loins
The mind will stray, yield of life"

X. THE AGE OF CONFUSION: REASON

And as the orgies all fade
and lust no longer attracts
then the brain will subdue the flesh
put the focus on facts

Human brain with a shameful part,
low names were high for loins and for breasts
Us Hades may harvest,
fully at it's behest

XI. THE AFTERMATH

I still cry and I still miss her
I was just a little boy
running through the endless garden of our home

Away -some say never, ever
we'll leave this god forsaken place
and ten thousand shivers
remain as we part

We're holding on, within our cradle of confusion
We paint no rainbows in the dark
No one will ever see us fade away
Oh for so long, I was the wielder of illusions
Our goddess gave in when she saw
that we had killed the earth and burnt to flames

Every smile on every face here
fell and crashed to the floor
All alone in the world crying desperately

Away -some say never, ever
we'll leave this god forsaken place
and ten thousand shivers
remain as we part

We're holding on, within our cradle of confusion
We paint no rainbows in the dark
No one will ever see us fade away
Oh for so long, I was the wielder of illusions
but there's no hiding what we are
We are the plague of all,
-for humanity there is no cure

God and Satan hand in hand
through the badland
took a flight uphill and down for man
a king with ashen crown

XII. DINING ON ASHES

What we reaping is what we sow
Naked our truth smugly glows
We leave all games behind, because;
It took twenty years to come and go
Then only did we all know
and see how wrinkled and jaded we have grown

Looking out the window
but there's nothing new
Only darkness stares at you
I would die to see the rain below the rainbow
just like others do

We crown the skies with our tiara;
-the life and fate of Aniara
We write an endless symphony
Now thousands were weeping
and hundreds cried in dismay;
-Twenty years today!
Repenting sinners pray

Easy come and easy go,
We could have had it all you know
Man's final day is here
Search for silver dig for gold
His desires not untold

Looking our the window
all that he can see;
his own reflection’s final plea;
"I would die to see the rain below the rainbow
just like others do"

We crown the skies with our tiara;
-the life and fate of Aniara
We write an endless symphony
Now thousands were weeping
and hundreds cried in dismay;
-Twenty years today!
Repenting sinners will wither and fade

XIII. THE CURTAIN FALLS

Gladness fleeting, by whims and luck
-That is the way of life
Looking, searching our hearts
to find the "why" of it all
Finding no way to our home

See, in silence we faded. Our great escape;
-twenty four years inside
Looking, searching our ship
for life but just dust
falls on the graves of all

The halls of our ship now are
void of all but death
Our lives have passed
our hearts were broken by the endless dark
Our new paradise,
the one to replace the one we burned so bad
The god we hoped for left profaned,
all wounded and forlorn on the home we scarred

Now here I stand, my dear,
one heart still beats...
I bid you farewell
the curtain will now descend
Somewhere in time we were living
-remember us then!