Uploaded September 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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Past Due track 06. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_past_due
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Lyrics:

He couldn't see the moons or suns, he couldn't see the stars
He couldn't see the docking lights, so he hangs around the bars
Though in the life he left behind he lived beyond the sky
He's grounded, useless, hopeless, for a blind man cannot fly

Now the man who flies a starship drive is a god to other men
No flaws has he that they perceive, no faults that they may ken
But should his body fail him or his senses let him down
They all ignore his time at war; alone he stalks the town

So the blind man sits and dreams of ships in the foam of another beer
A pilot sneers; the blind man hears, and he sheds a ductless tear
For once he was a soldier in the war to save his race
Till laser knives wiped out his eyes and left him half a face

Well, the star fleet's free with liberty, except in times of war
So comes the day the blind man's bay rings loud with space no more
The fleet is called, the ships lift out, the battle cry is blown
Left behind to drink his wine, the blind man sits alone

Well, then suddenly close fire breaks free among the spaceport bars
Enemy signs behind the lines, destroying home fleet stars
The blind man leaps to safety as the laser heat burns through
He alone may save his home; he knows what he must do

Through the sounds of war that blast him o'er, his memory is true
He finds a ship, a shuttle slip abandoned by its crew
He waits until the scanners sound—the battle is above
And with a prayer to gods of air he gives the jets a shove

They said it was a stroke of luck that shuttle's engines blew
They said it was the hand of God that aimed it straight and true
They said it was the fates of war that saved their world that day
That downed the rebel leader and so chased his force away

Well they never found the blind man in the rubble of the bar
They made a cave, an empty grave for a soldier of the stars
They then forgot the blind man, but I won't forget that night
I was a child, alone, who saw my father's final flight

Well, he couldn't see the moons or suns, he couldn't see the stars
He couldn't see the docking lights, so he hangs around the bars
Though in the life he left behind he lived beyond the sky
He's grounded, useless, hopeless, for a blind man cannot fly
No, a blind man cannot fly