The Imposter vs. the Floodtide (Dust and Petals) Elvis Costello & The Imposters

If dust could only talk
What would we hear it say?
Before it's brushed aside
Just as it's swept away

It's just the evidence
It's of no consequence
It's only flesh and bone
Why don't you leave it alone?

If dust could only speak
Caught in a falling beam
If dust could only cry
If dust could only scream
For it's the single witness that might testify
Could I spit out the truth?
Or would you rather just swallow a lie?

But dust is always caught behind a coat of pain
Beneath the marble fingernails of kings and saints
And in the theatre curtain where they hang a drape
And in the ticket pocket where your hands escape

Before they start to wander
Or they start to shrink
You rub your eye a little and appear to blink
And then she caught you staring
She knows what you're thinking
What got into you is not a ghost as such
It was just dust