The boy child is locked in the fisherman's yard
  There's a bloodless moon where the ocean died
  A shoal of nightstars hang fire in the nets
  And the chaos of cages where the crayfish lie
    Where is the fisherman, where is the goat?
  Where is the keeper in his carrion coat?
  Eclipse on the moon when the dark bird flies
  Where is the child with his father's eyes?
    There are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
    He's the king of the ninth world
  The twisted son of the fog bells toll
  In each and every lobster cage
  A tortured human soul
    These are the souls of broken factories
  The subject slaves of the broken crown
  The dead accounting of old guilty promises
  These are the souls of the broken town
    These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
    'I have a wager' the brave child spoke
  The fisherman laughed, though disturbed at the joke
  'You will drink what I drink but you must equal me
  And if the drink leaves me standing,
  A soul shall go free'
    'I have here a cask of most magical wine
  A vintage that blessed every ship in the line
  It's wrung from the blood of the sailor's who died
  Young white bodies adrift in the tide'
    'And what's in it for me my pretty young thing?
  Why should I whistle, when the caged bird sings?
  If you lose a wager with the king of the sea
  You'll spend the rest of forever in the cage with me'
    These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
    A body lies open in the fisherman's yard
  Like the side of a ship where the iceberg rips
  One less soul in the soul cages
  One last curse on the fisherman's lips
    These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
  These are the soul cages
    Swim to the light Swim to the light
    He dreamed of the ship on the sea
  It would carry his father and he
  To a place they could never be found
  To a place far away from this town
  A Newcastle ship without coals
  They would sail to the island of souls