The Family and the Fishing Net Songtext
von Peter Gabriel

Suffocated by mirrors, stained by dreams
Her honey belly pulls the seams
Curves are stiff upon the hinge
Pale zeros tinge the tiger skin

Moist as grass, ripe and heavy is the night
The sponge is full, well out of sight
All around the conversations
Icing on the warm flesh cake

Light creeps through her secret tunnels
Sucked into the open spaces
Burning out in sudden flashes
Draining blood from well-fed faces

Desire forms in subtle whispers
Flex the muscles in denial
Up and down its pristine cage
So the music, so the trial


Vows of sacrifice (Vows of sacrifice)
Headless chickens (Headless chickens)
Dance in circles (Dance in circles) they the blessed
Man and wife, undressed by all
Their grafted trunks in heat possessed

Even as the soft skins tingle
They mingle with the homeless mother
Who loves the day but lives another
That once was hers

The worried father, long-lost lover
Brushes ashes with his broom
Rehearses jokes to fly and hover
Bursting over the bride and groom

And the talk goes on

Memories crash on tireless waves
The lifeguards whom the winter saves
Memories crash on tireless waves
The lifeguards whom the winter saves

Silence falls the guillotine
All the doors are shut
Nervous hands grip tight the knife
In the darkness, till the cake is cut


Cut and passed around (Passed around)
In little pieces (In little pieces)
The body (The body and the flesh)
The family and the fishing net
Family, and the fishing net
Another, another in the mesh
Another

The body and the flesh
And the flesh