Mysteries in the bottle dwell
Where lovers kissed and soldiers fell
Some are taken by the spell
To live within the bottle's well
Where they revisit in vain
In blind attempts to explain
Untold battles on the plains of refrain
Empty houses on overgrown lanes
Fragile faces stitched in pain
Outside the bottle
Outside the room
Outside this garret
Outside this tomb
Before the prevading doom
The answers come
Then flit away
In the flirting light
Of a fleeting day
The same light
That filters through this lodge house window
Could fall upon much finer places
On diners with their shaven faces
Who know not of such empty spaces
Nor fumble with their broken laces
Or mumble at the cracked plaster faces