Prince of the Poverty Line

While sons and daughters of the empire Stained the map red, white and blue Back at home the storm clouds thundered Dole queues lengthened - unrest grew 'til the tides of fresh opinion Washed away the world they knew. Exchange inhuman wrongs for human rights This underdog not only barks - it bites! Take your partners for our civil war dance Open season on the under worked and overpaid. Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made. Children of the urban third world Breast fed lies and cathode rays Speak their minds down party chat lines (they don't have that much to say) Told nothing of the world we live in Or that it will be theirs someday. This system cultivates our lust and greed With anti-social insecurity. Take your partners for our civil war dance Open season on the under worked and overpaid. Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made. The preacher tells us all that heaven waits So pay your "soul tax" when you reach the gates. Take your partners for our civil war dance Open season on the under worked and overpaid. Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made. Livestock bred to feed the cannon Hands grown hard with honest toil Fuel the fires of mass rebellion Hatred's cauldron starts to boil They fight for something they believe in Not another nation's oil. Britannia cowers in her public school Once too often now she's waived the rules. Take your partners for our civil war dance Open season on the under worked and overpaid. Erase the Constitution - a bloody revolution Is the simplest solution to the problems that they have made.

Submitted by Nargaroth — Apr 24, 2025

Hands locked in darkness - a nocturnal greeting We flutter like moths round the brazier's flame Shrouded in shadow - our clandestine meeting Here where past and present are one and the same. No-one dies in Cardboard City Faces only fade away Eat your pride and take their pity Fight to live another day. And did those feet in ancient times Walk bare upon these lonely streets like mine? Does God watch us from that penthouse high above His children down below who live on air and love? Wrapped in old headlines beneath this shop awning I shiver in silence and wait for the morning. No-one cries in Cardboard City That would be a waste of tears Eat your pride and take their pity Like you have so many years. Youth of our nation - A lost generation Like lepers we march to the chimes of Big Ben. Exiled and rejected by powers elected Our cries from the gutter don't reach number ten. Give us this day our daily bread Before the headlines read "bring out your dead." Chip-wrapper flowers are blown onto this cardboard grave My spray paint epitaph upon the wall it says... "Here lies the bones of some poor homeless vagrant He died as he lived, in the shit on the pavement." No-one dies in Cardboard City Faces only fade away Eat your pride and take their pity Fight to live another day. No-one cries in Cardboard City That would be a waste of tears Eat your pride and take their pity Like you have so many years.

Submitted by Lake of Tears — Apr 24, 2025

There's a beast in the cellar There since this building was made. He's lurked in the shadows From when its' foundations were laid. From my "double-helix" he taunts me His primal voice roars It mocks my humanity Turning the key in locked doors. Sins of emission - an animal trapped in a civilised mind Sins of emission - my formal facade for the deaf, dumb and blind. Sins of emission - spilling my seed now the harvest is sown Sins of emission - come feast on a banquet of blood, flesh and bone. Though we try to deny This primordial drive in us all We will cease to exist When we no longer heed nature's call. I'm a puppet of lust and my instincts are pulling the strings No, love's not an angel - it's merely a monkey with wings. Sins of emission - enticing and thrilling Sins of emission - the flesh is so willing Sins of emission - down under my skin Sins of emission - we're all "in like Flynn." Temptation's the one thing we'll never resist It flirts like a maiden that yearns to be kissed Is throwing the cradle to hells raging fires More sinful than nursing unacted desires? Hold tightly the reins Of your bestial instinct to breed He's an unwelcome guest In the "house-trained" existence you lead How long can you muzzle this wild brute creation of yours? You can't quarantine the primeval with walls, bars and doors. Sins of emission - an animal trapped in a civilised mind Sins of emission - my formal facade for the deaf, dumb and blind. Sins of emission - spilling my seed now the harvest is sown Sins of emission - come feast on a banquet of blood, flesh and bone.

Submitted by Lake of Tears — Apr 24, 2025

Show me a politician who's a man we can trust And if I ever meet him then I think I'll have him stuffed Look out of the window - see not one happy face The only splash of colour's the graffiti 'round the place. It's hard to even crawl With your back up against the wall. I find it hard to sleep at night I feel that the worst is yet to come Social helter-skelter Ride the downward spiral has begun. Are some people just born bad Or is it how we all become? Human termites driven mad In the concrete mound of the rising slum. The people who are dark fear the people who are fair And hippies live in terror of the guys who have no hair The saddest thing of all - what I really find grim Is we haven't yet noticed what a mess we're all in. It's hard to even crawl Now your back's up against the wall. I find it hard to sleep at night I feel that the worst is yet to come Social helter-skelter Ride the downward spiral has begun. Are some people just born bad Or is it how we all become? Human termites driven mad In the concrete mound of the rising slum. The "whether man" says that the outlook's not great A few outbreaks of murder with some isolated rape I ask my doctor his advice, this is what he says, "Get yourself some cancer boy, before you die of aids." It's hard to even crawl With your back up against the wall. I find it hard to sleep at night I feel that the worst is yet to come Social helter-skelter Ride the downward spiral has begun. Are some people just born bad Or is it how we all become? Human termites driven mad In the concrete mound of the rising slum.

Submitted by Infernal Flame — Apr 24, 2025

Pick up the fragments and piece them together Tell me do you like what you've found? Are your thoughts like the world spinning round? Existence is pure pantomime Why is life such a puzzle sometimes? Trapped in a world I no longer feel part of Each day is a thorn in my side Though I've carried my cross - worn my heart on my sleeve Still deep inside something has died. If men have a sell-by-date I've just reached mine Now we've come to the end of the line. Why is life such a puzzle sometimes? Well I just can't believe that it's happened again Always knew that it would - just a matter of when A lie was the last straw on this camels back And just like Lot's wife I could never look back. So maybe the reason I act so estranged Is you still dream of him, it's you that has changed. No method to madness - no reason to rhyme Now we've come to the end of the line. Why is life such a puzzle sometimes? Well I just can't believe that it's happened again Always knew that it would - just a matter of when A lie was the last straw on this camels back And just like Lot's wife I could never look back. So maybe the reason I act so estranged Is you still dream of him, it's you that has changed. If men have a sell-by-date I've just reached mine Now we've come to the end of the line. Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

Submitted by Morgoth — Apr 24, 2025

I'm twenty six years old - please tell me what have I got A monopoly on misery - I guess that's my lot Ten years of eating bullshit leaves it's taste in your mouth And I think the time has come for me to spit it all out... 'Cause at the end of the tunnel I see A dole-queue that's beckoning me. Yes living hand-to-mouth it can be fun for a while Simple things please simple minds - do you see me smile? I've broke my bread and fishes - turned my water to wine But I'm sick of walking tightrope on the poverty line I left my home and family - I've pawned all my dreams Took a second mortgage on my soul to further my schemes Now my body's in the pages of "exchange and mart" Ten pounds or nearest offer for one slightly broken heart. And at the end of the rainbow I found A crock of shit there on the ground. Have you had a bellyful of emptiness Do you feel like me we're all just wasting our time If it's true inside each cloud's a silver lining Why does it shine on other lives but not on mine? I've had a bellyful of emptiness I've got a pocketful of nothing at all In real-life fairy tales the frog stays a frog And the serving girl can't be the belle of the ball. You're not the belle of the ball Get back in your cinders and crawl How many other fools like me Have lost their lives contractually Believing there must be far more Than nine to five - the factory floor? Have countless thousands watched their dreams Corrupted into things obscene By money minded bastards who Don't give a damn for me or you? Now my wallet's getting thinner like the hair on my head By the time I hit the "big Time" I'll be buried and dead Tell me how can you resent me for the money I've spent On the only habit I indulge (that's paying the rent)? No-one said this life was easy Christ I've known that all along But it needn't be this difficult that's why I wrote this song The sex and drugs and rock 'n 'roll were never meant to last And the bailiffs knocking on your door don't need a backstage pass! Be sure that you read between their lines There are claws in the contracts we sign. Have you had a bellyful of emptiness Do you feel like me we're all just wasting our time If it's true inside each cloud's a silver lining Why does it shine on other lives but not on mine? I've had a bellyful of emptiness I've got a pocketful of nothing at all In real-life fairy tales the frog stays a frog And the serving girl can't be the belle of the ball.

Submitted by Infernal Flame — Apr 24, 2025

2 A.M. a southbound junction - innocence takes flight Common sense has lost all function - stranded in the night. The albatross has flown the nest - he's breaking family ties He recalls his mother weeping with her hands held to her eyes. His alcoholic father was too drunk to know or care The rod not spared had spoiled this child - his only son and heir. The city lights have pulled him southward - magnets in his mind Where the streets are paved with gold and lady luck is kind. "The boy only wants some attention - he's wasting our time He'll never survive on his own - for he's no son of mine." There's thousands more just like him - seeking love they've never found No hearth and home to call his own - our fox has run to ground. His father taught him right from wrong (and beat him black and blue) Caressed the boy with his clenched fist the only way he knew. He never went to school that much 'cause he could not disguise The weals and bruises on his legs - the rings around his eyes. He only needed a family to help him to shine All he has is a ticket to ride on the poverty line. He stirs from his gin and tamazapam coma To find while he slept someone has done him over His things are all missing or strewn 'cross the floor And he can't quite recall the events of the evening before. As cars race by our young prince waits behind his cardboard shield "OXFAM" crown upon his head - his thumb a sword to wield A shoddy-clad knight of the road - the quest is underway Drawn by glowing street lights in the night - and smoke by day. The city lights have pulled him southward - magnets in his mind Where the streets are paved with gold and lady luck is kind. "The boy only wants some attention - he's wasting our time" (he only needed a family to help him to shine) "He'll never survive on his own - for he's no son of mine" (all he has is a ticket to ride on the poverty line).

Submitted by The Void — Apr 24, 2025

The devil's circus came to town - we watched the freaks arrive en masse When they paraded through our streets, we turned a blind eye as they passed Safe in the comfort of our homes we all forget the need to fear This is the new "new Jerusalem" and it could never happen Hear the cries as freedom dies - the gods of war have woken A Catherine wheel of fire and steel, the death machine in motion. The Gammadion Seed - draw the curtains, live in fear The Gammadion Seed - watch your neighbours disappear The Gammadion Seed - if you're too slow to realise The Gammadion Seed - then Gammadion will rise. Five years pass by - unnoticed change, their glamour has us in it's grasp But now the walls have eyes and ears - questions too dangerous to ask New state controlled T.V. and press - for reasons suddenly unclear This is the European dream so nothing bad can happen Hear the cries as freedom dies - the gods of war have woken A Catherine Wheel of fire and steel, the death machine in motion. Now the first among equals are chosen at birth Your outward appearance is all that you're worth They came for the black man and then for the Jew They've done with the gypsies - all that leaves is you! Behind the painted greasepaint smiles - hide faces rarely known to grin Men who will feed you to the lions for having different thoughts or skin And when we realise that we've made a state to last a thousand years Our pleas for help will not be heard, because there's no-one left to... Hear the cries as freedom dies - the gods of war have woken A Catherine Wheel of fire and steel, the death machine in motion. The Gammadion Seed - draw the curtains, live in fear The Gammadion Seed - watch your neighbours disappear The Gammadion Seed - if you're too slow to realise The Gammadion Seed - then Gammadion will rise.

Submitted by Nargaroth — Apr 24, 2025

Black hat stranger - affluent as effluent Hides behind his mirror shades and crocodile smile Preying on the weak, the vulnerable and innocent All things pure and virginal he will defile. Shepherd of a flock of black sheep - he knows his charges well Their thirst for life is drowning down in his snow filled hell... They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie. Slaves to the only god they know, Drawn by the song of the cosmic diva The lord of the flies is a dandy beau King of the hill in the new Bohemia Where does he come from, their redeemer Where does he dwell? (they never learn) What is the prize for the true believer? Rotting away in the "Womb of the Worm"? Death is the hand of a handsome stranger - (he speaks, heads turn) Babes unaware of impending danger - quickening dead in the "Womb of the Worm" They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie. At the gravesides of sad lonely children Reason sits with a tear in her eye Killed in their prime - tell me why were they taken? It's not them but "the Worm" that should die. "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" - a grieving mother's sad refrain Chasing dragons in the subway, to kill the time and ease the pain. Words of "the Worm": "Don't be afraid - just take my hand 'cause life's too short to be a bore Try it once, you'll understand Why they keep coming back for more." Form an orderly line outside death's door If you want to taste his sweet amnesia He's never short of clientele Though most of them die from a fatal seizure Another mother cries to a chat-show host (she speaks - my stomach churns) I hear how a young kid - now a young ghost Died a sickening death in "the Womb of the Worm." They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie They never die - in "the Womb of the Worm" they lie.

Submitted by Iron_Wraith — Apr 24, 2025

A red letter day for our nowhere industrial town A minister's heading this way - he's closing us down But what of my daughter - and what of my son Just how will they live when the factory's gone? Election day promises now null and void They'll never rest 'til we're all unemployed UB40's a book that you'll find very hard to put down The dormant machinery screams - taunting the skies Ghosts of the Halcyon dream sustaining our lives No job for my daughter - no job for my son How can I forgive them for what they have done? New statesmen composing the lies for tomorrow's front page What pays for the blunders they make - it's the working mans wage. Election day promises now null and void They'll never rest 'til we're all unemployed UB40's a book that you'll find very hard to put down They've issued us all with free rose tinted glasses Job training schemes - leisure management classes No news is good when you live on the wrong side of town. The nadir of despair we have sunk to is easy to gauge Our children grow thinner and ever more bitter with age. From Newcastle's shipyards to Nottingham's pits They strip down our country and sell it in bits Election day promises seemingly now null and void While microchip minds keep the industry grinding We all hunt for jobs that we've no chance of finding No change in the everyday lives of the mass unemployed. A red letter day for our nowhere industrial town A minister's heading this way - he's closing us down But what of my daughter - and what of my son Just how will they live when the factory's gone? Election day promises now null and void They'll never rest 'til we're all unemployed UB40's a book that you'll find very hard to put down They've issued us all with free rose tinted glasses Job training schemes - leisure management classes No news is good when you live on the wrong side of town.

Submitted by Corpse Defiler — Apr 24, 2025