Anthem For Doomed Youth

You’re howling, abyss-eyed and broken
You’re perverted and gracefully drunk
But there’s nobody left in the west these days
Wronged enough to be a punk
Doomed youth, you’re so beautiful
You never learned to be suspicious
Of the stones that look too precious to be true
Like you, Doomed Youth
The spit at the edge of your mouth
The stain at the crotch of your jeans
The three-inch bruise at the crook of your arm
That in the right light looks like jesus
The smirk you can’t hide when you cry
The care in the knot of your tie
It’s really not that hard to stay alive
When you’re twenty-five
Oh, Doomed Youth
Doomed youth
Your party and your revolution
Your grand designs and adorable dreams
Your silverless palms and your list of demands
For concessions the world doesn’t need
Doomed youth, you’re too beautiful
All these simplicities that you know they can’t see
Like you can do, doomed youth
And everything’s different lately
And it’s all exactly the same
We know secrets and songs and temptation
We know how things burn when you don’t watch the flame
And the colours are hazy and fading
The ideas given way to the names
We are miners no more, never torn by a war
Neither starving, nor struggling, nor credibly poor
Oh, Doomed Youth
Doomed youth