After The Rush Hour

I am the small town lineman,

and you'll find me out here on the line.

searching ceaselessly to simply find a place I can call mine.

Every corner of this country

criss-crossed out with coloured lines,

the city lies before me, another city sprawling out behind.

I am a frontiersman, trapped in suburban England!

And since the Scramble ended,

since the West was won on wagon trails,

it seems Mazzini's paradisiacal panopticon prevailed.

My walkabouts no longer take me

beyond a choice of different gaols.

Why should I have to choose a state when every one of them has failed?

I am a frontiersman, trapped in suburban England.

And I promise not to overthrow the state

if allowed to redraw the atlas before I emigrate!

So I have sailed the seven seas alone,

trying to find a shore I can call home,

but all I found are different flags, double-speaking diplomats,

and I do not have time for that.

So I'll declare my own sovereign state,

the borders based on the bottoms of my boots,

and I will open embassies wherever the hell I please,

and at assemblies you will see me sat but never on my knees.

I am a frontiersman, trapped in suburban England!

And I promise not to overthrow the state

if allowed to redraw the atlas before I emigrate!

And I'd gladly leave your Metternich's alone

as long as where I lay my head I can be my very own.

I am the Winchester lineman!

I am a frontiersman, trapped in suburban England!

but here I will not remain,

I'll ride into the sunset, my horse waits on the plain.

And I keep walking the line.