Horsell Common and the Heat Ray (feat. Liam Neeson)

Next morning, a crowd gathered on the common

Hypnotized by the unscrewing of the cylinder

Two feet of shining screw projected

When suddenly, the lid fell off

Two luminous, disk-like eyes appeared above the rim

A huge rounded bulk, larger than a bear, rose up

Slowly, glistening like wet leather

It's lipless mouth quivered and slathered

And snake-like tentacles writhed

As the clumsy body heaved and pulsated

A few young men crept closer to the pit

A tall funnel rose

Then an invisible ray of heat leapt form man to man

And there was a bright glare

As each was instantly turned to fire

Every tree and bush became a mass of flames

At the touch of this savage, unearthly heat ray

People clawed their way off the Common

And I ran too

I felt I was being toyed with

That when I was on the very verge of safety

This mysterious death would leap after me and strike me down

At last, I reached Maybury Hill

And I looked with astonishment at the tranquility of the scene

Yet once inside, in the dim, coolness of my home

I wrote an account for my newspaper

Before I sank into a restless, haunted sleep

I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit

And hurried to the railway station to buy the paper

(Morning paper, men from Mars, men from Mars)

Newsboys exclaimed, that one or two adventurous souls

Had crawled near the Martians in the night

Never to be seen again

Yet around me, the daily routine of life

Working, eating, sleeping

Was continuing serenely as it had for countless years

On Horsell Common, the Martians continued hammering and stirring

Sleepless, indefatigable

At work upon the machines they were making

Now and again, a light, like the beam of a warship searchlight

Swept the Common, and the heat ray was ready to follow

In the afternoon, a company of soldiers came through

And deployed along the edge of the Common

To form a cordon

That evening, there was a violent crash

And I realized with horror

That my home was now within range of the Martian's heat ray

At dawn a falling star with a trail of green mist

Landed with a flash, like summer lightening

This was the second cylinder

(Morning paper, men from Mars, men from Mars)