Elvis Costello

Dust 2...

Elvis Costello


If dust could only talk 
What would we hear it say? 
Before it's brushed aside 
Just as it's swept away 

It's just the evidence 
It's of no consequence 
It's only flesh and bone 
Why don't you leave it alone? 

If dust could only speak 
Caught in a falling beam 
If dust could only cry 
If dust could only scream 
For it's the single witness that might testify 
Could I spit out the truth? 
Or would you rather just swallow a lie? 

But dust is always caught behind a coat of paint 
Beneath the marble fingernails of kings and saints 
And in the theatre curtain where they hang a drape 
Or in the ticket pocket where your hands escape 

Before they start to wander 
Or they start to shrink 
You rub your eye a little and appear to blink 
And then she caught you staring 
She knows just what you're thinking 
What got into you was not a ghost as such 
It was just dust 

Here comes the juggernaut 
Here come The Poisoners 
They choke the life and land 
And rob the joy from us 
Why do they taste of sugar 
Oh, when they're made of money 
Here comes the lamb of God 
And the butcher's boy, Sonny 

Well I believe we just 
Become a speck of dust...