Lyrics

Vapour and crumb, vapour and crumb
Look how we scramble for whatever comes
The children all are hungry, the fire’s burning cold
Sad are the eyes, bitter the tongue
Living on nothing but vapor and crumb
Hard to build your palace in the slums

They’re putting up wires in the East
Putting out fires in the West
I put on these rags before sunrise
And I put all my dreams to rest
And I come home late at night with soot on my face
A man of my station always knows his place…

Vapour and crumb, vapour and crumb
Trawling the depths, hauling the scum
Once they had to watch us - now we keep ourselves in line
Notions we had, songs that we sung
Melted and smashed into vapour and crumb
Cries of freedom die upon the lung

They tell us the plague is coming
We know it’s already here
It seeps from our stoves, it’s baked into loaves
It feeds on anger and fear
There’s poison in the water and in the air
There’s poison in the mind, and death everywhere…

The gaslight on the rainswept street almost gleams like gold
The streets are paved with good intention, least that’s what we’re told
I crawl through naked alleys in a city I once knew
Now I can’t tell if anything is true

Vapour and crumb, vapour and crumb
Famine for many, banquet for some
Or I could take the royal coin and march behind the drum

But what would they do? My children are young
They’re hoping for better than vapour and crumb
They still believe that we shall overcome

You can’t see the shackles, but still we live like slaves
There ain’t no hero comin’, there’s no one left to save
So I’ll take them to the mountains. We’ll take our chances there
Maybe someplace we can breathe the air…
Heaven knows where
Vapour and crumb…

© 2020 Jude Roberts (Robert Jude DiBennardo)