The Commander

This Empire’s in trouble, thought the Commander

Better days boxed up and fading, relics at his feet

A uniform hangs on a broken door

Crumpled from a long-forgotten battle in the street

It’s been years since any word from any of the outposts

Files overflow with ancient orders and plans for peace

Names, addresses, polaroids and letters with the words blacked out

Waiting for the bonfires of the secret police

And this is not how I’d have wished it, he whispers

So come all the ugly, nameless things

Scale the compound wall

Because things got complicated and I lost my nerve

These standing armies, for saving face and petty spats

Speech consultants, PR men, the joke writers and party hats

I don’t know where any of it’s getting me anymore

Stack up the portraits in a pile on the courtyard floor

And I’ll wait here for the news crews to descend

Blinking in the flashbulbs and stutter at the end

All the promises, the waving flags, the slogans and the songs

Rattle round behind the eyes, where did it all go wrong?

‘Cause this is not how I’d have wished it, he whispers

To his imaginary biographer, justifying crimes

It’s just things got complicated, and I lost my nerve

And the public only buy these lies, so many times

So he spends his days walking silent compound halls

Watching rolling news for word on when this thing is finally gonna fall

You got any idea what it takes to keep this running round the clock?

Upkeep alone, said the Commander, is more than I’ve got

To keep important looking books on the library shelves

You think secret service uniforms just dry clean themselves?

Or collecting data on people you will never meet comes cheap?

You think winning hearts and minds at this stage is an easy trick?

Well this is not how I’d have wished it, he whispers

So come all the dark and growling shapes

Smash the structures down

Because things got complicated and I lost my nerve

Yeah this is not how I’d have wished it, he whispers

So come all the ugly, nameless things

Scale the compound walls

Because things got complicated, and I lost my nerve

Said the Commander