A Minute of Ghosts

Listen close, oh weary traveller

for an ancient tale I´ll tell

upon the hills a haunted palace stands

where some noblemen still pay

for the grace from which they fell

In daylight a crumbling ruin

its archways dusty cobwebs span

mouldering tapestries rot in its empty halls

and the wind moans round the barren walls

sings of bitterness to come

As midnight falls in silver moonlight

shadows always dance in the castle-keep

swing and sway in a timeless minuet

watch the centuries pass by

its dwellers are denied of their eternal sleep

Bridge:

From behind the shattered windows

an unseen orchestra plays

as slowly a banquet of spectres

to its eerie music sways

And the centuries pass by

but deliverance never came

so they dance each night

for their lost souls to redeem

Lady moon shines in milk white pallor

through the fallen castles gate

restored to all its former glory

each night until the morning breaks

The clock strikes twelve as moving figures

from nowhere in the ballroom rise

Lords and ladies luminescent

centuries dead, but still alive

from nowhere frail music rises

as the shadows coalesce

they dance a minuet of ghosts

swiftly swaying arabesque

candles flicker, they recreating

a moving image surreal

as an unseen violins moaning

for the dancers in the hall

a company of translucent nobles

amongst their spectral audience

through dead for years, their apparitions

perform a feast, which never ends

Refrain:

They dance a ghostly minuet - pirouettes of shadows

luminescent silhouettes - moving in the darkness