The Traitor

Now the swan it floated

On the english river

Ah the rose of high romance

It opened wide

A sun tanned woman yearned me

Through the summer

And the judges watched us

From the other side

I told my mother mother

I must leave you

Preserve my room

But do not shed a tear

Should rumour of a shabby

Ending reach you

It was half my fault

And half the atmosphere

But the rose I sickened

With a scarlet fever

And the swan I tempted

With a sense of shame

She said at last

I was her finest lover

And if she withered

I would be to blame

The judges said you missed it

By a fraction

Rise up and brace

Your troops for the attack

Ah the dreamers ride

Against the men of action

Oh see the men of action

Falling back

But I lingered on her thighs

A fatal moment

I kissed her lips

As though I thirsted still

My falsity had stung me

Like a hornet

The poison sank

And it paralysed my will

I could not move to warn

All the younger soldiers

That they had been

Deserted from above

So on battlefields

From here to barcelona

I'm listed with the enemies of love

And long ago she said

I must be leaving

Ah but keep my body here to lie upon

You can move it up

And down and when I'm sleeping

Run some wire through

That rose and wind the swan

So daily I renew my idle duty

I touch her here and there

I know my place

I kiss her open mouth

And I praise her beauty

And people call me traitor to my face