Stumbled Peter Hammill

Wash your hands clean
Don't let anybody see the dirty work
Keep those secrets
Locked away from sight forever
Hidden safely where your darker side still runs berserk

So much stored-up resentment
All that background fallout from so long ago
It's still here to haunt you
In a trunk locked in the attic
Are the clothes that dressed the actions
You discarded but you can't outgrow
There's a false wall in the basement
Where you hide away the history you dare not put on show

And when the hammer hits the nail upon the thumb
Then the unvarnished truth is what you stumble on

On your best behaviour
Keep on playing out the lily-white
But you'll always be stuck there
Going round and round in circles
The mistakes which you repeat form up the framework
Which defines your life

You couldn't quantify the depths you'd have to plumb
Or the damage you've collaterally done
Still, your own footprints are the tracks you stumble on