The Last of England

Billy came home from the war

To Appledore, drifting in the carpark

Of the second church to be sold since spring And in his redlining is a wing

A feather to his throttle, God

The absent father who stopped calling

I got bored to madness that June

Spitting at the sun

Hollowing the moon

And then we were the last

Of England, rotten to the core

When came a fireblight alleluia

Ripped us shore to shore

And what we lost that year

Came clear in the emigration

Of whose conscription

Not called out in

The sound mirror

But i was cruising

Gawain in the mist

There as we kissed

Up against the Pendle Hill oak

The green king

Deep in doggerland woke

I got born into

This sadness

Just like you

Cried the white horse of the sun

To the inverted moon

When we were the last

Of England, rotten to the core

When came a fireblight alleluia

Ripped us shore to shore

And by mabon

Were you dancing the broom

By the light of the burning pier

Or were you gone?

To the last

Rotten to the core