Sands of Time

You're a slave in the Sahara sunset
You're a pocketwatch formed beneath a sand dune
You're a surgeon severing blood vessels
On an Indian prison ship

You're a portrait of a flower hung in a shop
You're a teardrop rolling through a monsoon
You're a grain of immortal dirt
Flailing through a landslip

Children on the streets, quivering in shame
And you are here, and you're to blame
And ash and dust and sand and rust
The sands of time, the sands of time

You're a girl in a purple dress on Edgware Road
You're a hunger in the belly of an orphan
You're a witchdoctor whispering riddles
To an ancient stranger's tune

You're Ganymede with a spike in your eye
You're Asimov with a bottle of wine
You're a drug dealer broken hearted
Writhing in a Vienna hotel room

Children on the streets, quivering in shame
And you are here, and you're to blame
And ash and dust and sand and rust
The sands of time, the sands of time
The sands of time, the sands of time