The Missing

Lyrics

The Missing For the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire disaster As if their bodies became lighter Ten of those seated in the front pews of the church began to float And then to lie as if on a bed Then pass down the aisle, as if on a conveyor belt of pure air Slow as a funeral cortege Past the congregants Some sinking to their knees in prayer One woman, rocking back and forth muttered "What about me Lord, why not me?" The Risen stream slowly So slowly out the gothic doors And up to the sky Finches darting deftly between them Ten streets away A husband tries to hold onto the feet of his floating wife At times, her force lifts him slightly off the ground, his grip slipping He falls to his knees with just her high-heeled shoe in his hand He shields and squints his eyes as she is backlit by the sun A hundred people start floating from the windows of a tower block From far enough away they could be black smoke from spreading flames A father with his child on top of his shoulders Men in sand-colored [?] A woman with an Elvis print and vintage glasses A deep indigo hijab flapping in the wind, all airborne Amongst the service clouds floating like hair They begin to look like a separate city Someone looking on can mistake them for new arrivals to earth They are the city of the Missing We now, the city of the the Stayed