A Louse Is Not a Home

 A#  F    Gm    D#   D           A#  F    Gm    D#   D
Sometimes it's very scary here; sometimes it's very sad
 D#  Gm   D#  F             Gm     D#  F    Gm  D#   D
Sometimes I think I'll disappear; be_times I think I have
  D#       F     Gm     D#    D
There's a line snaking down my mirror
  D#         F    Gm  D#     D
Splintered glass distorts my face
D#    Gm     D#  F                     Gm
And though the light is strong and strange
D#  F                    Gm    D#             D
It can't illuminate the musty corners of this place
  D#        F                                     Gm  D#  D
There is a lofty, lonely, Lohengrenic castle in the clouds
  D#          F   Gm  D#             D
[Yes and ]I draw my  murky meanings there
 D#  Gm           D#   F             Gm
But seven years' dark luck is just around the corner
D#           F           Gm    D#    D
And in the shadows lurks the spectre of Despair

Dm
A cracked mirror mid the drapes of the landing
C
Split image, labored understanding
A#                          A               Dm
I'm only trying to find a place to hide my home

( Dm  C  Dm  Dm  C )
( Dm  Dm  C  D )
( G  Am  C  Am )
( G  Am  C  D  Am )

G     Am       C              Am
I've lived in houses composed of glass
G     Am     C      D     Am
Where every movement is charted
G    Am      C              Am
But now the monitor screens are dark
G   Am               C     D          Am
And I can't tell if silent eyes are there

G   Am        C                Am
My words are spiders upon the page
G     Am        C      D        Am
They spin out faith, hope and reason
G    Am       C                      D        C      D
But are they meet and just, or only dust gathering about my
chair?

A#                   A
Sometimes I get the feeling that there's
               Dm
Someone else there
Dm
The faceless watcher [he] makes me uneasy
C
I can feel him through the floorboards, and His presence is creepy
A#                 A             Dm
He informs me that I shall be expelled

 Dm
What is that but out of and into
 C
[I] don't know the nature of the door that I'd go through
 Am                                                 A#
[I] don't know the nature of the nature that I am inside

G     Am       C              Am
I've lived in houses of brick and lead
G     Am       C      D     Am
Where all emotion is sacred
G     Am       C              Am
And if you want to devour the fruit
G     Am       C       D      Am
You must first sniff at the fragrance

G     Am       C              Am
And lay your body before the shrine
G     Am       C       D      Am
With poems and posies and papers
G     Am       C              Am
Or, if you catch the ruse, you'll have to choose
C            D        C      D
To stay, a monk, or leave, a vagrant

 A#                 A
What is this place you call home?
Dm
Is it a sermon or a confession?
C
Is it the chalice that you use for protection?
A#                  A
Is it really only somewhere you can stay?
Dm
Is it a rule-book or a lecture?
C
Is it a beating at the hands of your Protector?
A#                  A
Does the idol have feet of clay?

Dm
Home is what you make it, so my friends all say
C                                       Bm
But dont't you know I rarely see their homes in these dark days
Dm
Some of them are snails and carry houses on their backs
C                          Bm
Others live in monuments which, one day, will be racks
Dm         C                                A#         (G  A  A#)
I keep my home in place with sellotape and tin-tacks
A#                      Am                 Dm
But I still feel there's some other Force here
F                        Em
He who cracks the mirrors and moves the walls
Dm
Keeps staring through the eye-slits of the portraits in my hall
F                          Em
He ravages my library and taps the telephone

Dm
I've never actually seen Him
But I know He's in my home
D#         F
And if he goes away
Gm        D#      D
I can't stay here either
D#  F             Gm  D#                  D     D#
I believe - er - I think - well, I don't know

I only live in one room at a time
But all of the walls are ears, [and] all the windows, eyes
Everything else is foreign
'Home' is my wordless chant
Mmmmmaah
Give it a chance

G     Am       C              Am
I am surrounded by flesh and bone
G     Am     C     D     Am
I am a temple of living
G     Am       C        Am
I am a hermit, I am a drone
G     Am      C        D      Am
And I am boning out a place to be

G     Am       C              Am
With secret garlands about my head
G     Am     C     D    Am
Unearthly silence is broken
G     Am       C              Am
The room is growing dark, and in the stark light
C      D     C      D
I can see a face I know

A#                 A              Dm
Could this be the guy who never shows
Dm
The cracked mirror what he's feeling
C
Merely mumbles prayers to the ground where he's kneeling
A#
 Home is home is home is home is  home is
A                                   Dm
House is house is house is] home is me
Dm
All you people looking for your houses
C
Don't throw your weight around, you might break your glasses
 A#                  A                 Dm
And if you do, you know you just can't see

Dm
And then how are you to find the dawning of the day?
C                         Bm
- Day is just a word I use to keep the dark at bay
Dm
And people are imaginary, nothing else exists
C
Except the room I'm sitting in
         Bm
And, of course, the all-pervading mist
Dm           C                   A#       (Em  C) Dm
Sometimes I wonder if even that's real

D#  F  Em  D#     D
Maybe I should de-louse this place
D#  F  Em  D#                 D
Maybe I should de-place this louse
D#  Gm  D#    F              Gm
Maybe  I'll maybe my life away
D#      F       Gm       D#   D
In the confines of this silent house
 D#  F   Gm  D#        D          D#  F   Gm  D#  D
Sometimes   it's very scary here; sometimes   it's very sad
 D#  Gm   D#  F              Gm    D#  F    Gm  D#D
Sometimes I think I'll disappear; sometimes I think