Talitha Kum

Seated in the doorway
Jack’s jolly ghost appeared
Wearing a smoking jacket
And a boutonnière
He’d passed over on that morning in 1963
Wounded in the heart and head
Like Camelot and Kennedy
Oh, child (“Talitha Kum”)

I am Mob, the rioting mob
With chains to bind the free
And we cannot be forgiven
Our pig-headed blasphemy
We will dive into the waters
We will drown beneath the sea
These wingless swine too fat to fly
And navigate eternity

Oh, child (“Talitha Kum”)
(You are only sleeping; No, you are not dead)
Rise, child (“Talitha Kum”)
(The days of slumber fleeting
On your funereal bed)
New arrivals, long departed
Through a door now left unguarded
This is a mystery
Don’t ask me, let it be
Soon and very soon
Oh, child (“Talitha Kum”)
Come touch the garment of
The Word made flesh
“There is virtue flowing out of me”
It’s too late to ask the Sons of Thunder
(the roaring sons of Zebedee)
Or the faithful, faithless fishermen
Below the waves of Galilee
The drowned swine floating past them
Or Jack’s ghost or Kennedy’s

Oh, child (“Talitha Kum”)
(You are only sleeping; No, you are not dead)
Rise, child (“Talitha Kum”)
(The days of slumber fleeting
On your funereal bed)
New arrivals, long departed
Through a door now left unguarded
This is a mystery
Don’t ask me, let it be
Soon and very soon
Oh, child (“Talitha Kum”)

Rise, child (“Talitha Kum”)
Rise, child (“Talitha Kum”)
Talitha Kum...

You are only sleeping
No, you are not dead