A Trick Of The Tail

The lyrics tell of a horned, tailed creature who leaves a place he calls the “city of gold” and enters a world of people who do not believe he is real. They treat him as a curiosity and confine him, but he escapes and tries to lead one of them home. The mood shifts from restlessness and loneliness to fear, then to hope—and finally to a surprising sense of return.

The “city of gold” may represent a cherished home or a community the creature longs to find again. The people’s lack of horns and tails marks them as outsiders from his point of view, reversing the usual idea of who counts as ordinary. Being put in a cage makes him seem less like a person to them and more like an exhibit. The phrase “beyond the bounds of your weak imagination” suggests that their narrow expectations prevent them from seeing what might exist.

At the end, the people think they glimpse the city but doubt their eyes; the creature disappears, and a voice welcomes them home. This could mean they have reached his world, or that they have entered a strange, dreamlike realm they cannot explain. The ending leaves open whether the city is a real place, a vision, or a symbol of belonging.