The Mousetrap (Caught In) - Peter Hammill

The Mousetrap (Caught In) - Peter Hammill
After all is said and done
Not very much will have been either way:
I'm a chronicler of action
I'm an actor in the play
I know the lines I have to speak
I know that I won't ever quit corpse or dry
But the performance gets so pointless
And the days just drift on by
Every time that I go to turn the pages of the calendar
In the third act of this twenty-ninth year of the show
I'm aware of the latest leading lady and get mad at her
It's perfunctory but why she'll never know
When I began I had my hopes
Believed that I could be a leading light of the stage
But now I've stunned myself to silence
Exhausted all my inner rage
Extinguished all my joy and violence
Trapped all my feelings in a cage
And every time that I go to turn the pages of the calendar
I can see that I'm not really going anywhere;
All these years I have skirted round experience like a scavenger
Can I really feel I wonder if I dare
At the end of the run will there be anyone who cares
And behind the actor's pose heaven knows
If there's anyone left in there