V.

It is surely time to fire We are down now past the plastic, the sea coal, the flip-flops Down through the flints, the quartzite, the hags And down to the imprint-taking, relic-yielding clay We are among bracelet clasps, spindle-whorls, a whalebone table We are among fossils, the mammoths, the turtles, the sharks, the nautilus The wing bone of the albatross, the ear bone of the eagle ray Song of the bomb, the drifting song The firing song, the song of the bomb Song of the wren, the devil-bird's song The firing song, the song of the bomb Song of the spores, the drifting song The firing song, the song of the bomb Song of the hag, the sea coal song The firing song, the song of the bomb The song of the bomb, the song of the bomb (the song of the bomb, the song of the bomb) (The song of the bomb, the song of the bomb, the song of the bomb) His lips are now chert, the slate blue of a peregrine's back And the sea's black before a storm And his tongue is agate, all the profuse, unearthly colours of agate I am petrified Oh, happy band of pilgrims, drift upward to the skies Where such a murmuration shall win so great a prize Shingle shelters bunker, bunker shelters blast Dark drifts down Night flies fast (dark drifts down, night flies fast) Song of the bomb, the drifting song (dark drifts down) The firing song, the song of the bomb (night flies fast) Song of the wren, the devil-bird's song (dark drifts down) The firing song, the song of the bomb (night flies fast) Song of the spores, the drifting song (dark drifts down) The firing song, the firing song (night flies fast) The firing song, the firing song The song of the bomb, the song of the bomb The song of the bomb, the song of the bomb The song of the bomb, the song of the bomb The song of the bomb, the song of the bomb It was all sea once, in a long unbroken line (It was all sea once, it was all sea once) (It was all sea once, it was all sea once) (It was all sea once, it was all sea once) (It was all sea once, it was all sea once)