There were no sirens, I heard no alarms
This situation has somehow got completely out of hand
It’s no illusion, it’s not a dream
My eyes are open and all is as appears
It’s a perfect nightmare
It’s a perfect nightmare
In an imperfect world

I missed the wake up, slept through the dawn
The world’s a stage but I’ve declared these curtains drawn
Behind the fourth wall, behind the scenes
A discarded fading flower on the soporific, sensual Perfume River
The perfect nightmare
Escape the perfect nightmare
Dream the perfect world

I close my mind in soft surrender
In quiet resignation take the lies
I lock the door, I lock the door
I junk the mail, I never open letters
Programme numbers that I know I’ll never call
Collect addresses of friends who’ll soon be strangers
Message pending, I know just what it says
Should I accept another lie?
I swallow all the lies
I live the lie.

There are places that I know that I will never see
Some I wish I’d never seen before
The horror stalks my vision and the cries ring in my ears
I am helpless, I am not brave, I am alone
I wander the dark alleys of the citadel
Deserted shops and empty houses mark my way
Bullet holes in stuccoed walls are testimony
To the voices disappeared within the fear

Take me away to the Perfume River
Carry me down to the Perfume River
Set me adrift on a well-stocked open boat
Show me the way down to the Perfume River
Send me away down the Perfume River
Pour that sweet, sweet liquor down my throat

Fire breathing dragons swarm in sweltering skies
Spewing flame on innocents below
Charred and brittle corpses, blackened evidence
I am enraged, I am afraid, I am forlorn
The ashes from wise pages fly from libraries
Tumble in the clouds of smoke and flies
To lie as dust in corners of dark palaces
The fetid smell of revolution haunts the air

Take me away to the Perfume River
Carry me down to the Perfume River
Set me adrift on a well-stocked open boat
Show me the way to the Perfume River
Send me away down the Perfume River
Pour that sweet, sweet liquor down my throat
Pour it down my throat

Carry me down to the Perfume River
Hold me down in the Perfume River
Where I’ll drown my sorrows and I’ll die in hope
Push me away down the Perfume River
To the swirls and eddies of the Perfume River
In these dark and muddied waters just let me float
The truth I don’t want to know