St. James

Bright night no respite from the clamour

Of the day, no relief, no delay in the drama

On the street where the heat makes you sway and stagger

Where light cuts through the night likea dagger

Where sounds beat down on the ground like a hammer

And signs catch minds in the glare of the glamour

In the glitter of means beyond the dreams

Of the people passing down beneath

Chorus

St. James, night is falling down

Like a blanket drawn over the town

The whole place like a boil ready to bus'

St. James pray for us

St James night is coming down

Like an eyelid closing on the town

A crown is rolling in the dust

St. James pray for us

On this night between light and squalour

Where all lose sight and shadows taller

Than men, brought to life by the nightfall,

Pass the hours limin' gainst the wall

While power lines like vines hang over the scene

A circus net to catch falling dreams

While drains fetch rains to feed hidden streams

And hope like a hammock hangs between

Dusk and dawn, sin and grace

Sky and earth and want and waste

Death and birth, toil and slumber

The world above and the one boiling under

Hope through the gutter, through the drain like a rat,

Silent as a shadow, like a roach through the crack

Of the wall, of the house, of the shack, of the brain

Creeping like a mouse hope has no shame,

and like light eats the shadow and rust eats the chain,

Like wind feeds the fire and rain drowns the flame

Like love tames desire and love buries blame

Hope has come down to do the same

Down, down, ready to drown

In the pool of our sorrow, in the sea of our wrong,

Like a pothound sniffing the ground for a bone

looking for something thrown away to call his own

First stop rumshop, by the doubles man

In the alley, behind the playwe stand

Hope whispers into the air of night

"brother, haul yuh tail this town is mine"

St. James, night is falling down…..