The first couple of stanzas seem to be about the pressure of having a lot of potential... when you're a genius like Conor, there is a lot of pressure to create something amazing..."potential is a horrible thing to waste and all that." Well he responds by wasting it, and trying not to think of all the things that he needs to live up to. He is passing is life this way and he feels it slowly ending.
I think the dementia stanza might be about the relief of losing touch with reality (kind of a twist on the way the disease is usually looked at)... for now he tries to find a place to go where he doesn't have to think or do anything, just "let his shadow grow."
He's thinking back on the time he's wasted and hopes "someday he can get it back." In the last stanza about the train, he is departing (by train, apparently) into the afterlife and he is trying to wave at the people he's leaving behind (in this analogy on the train station platform)... but no one knows who he is. He hasn't left any imprint on the world...
::shrugs:: just my thoughts
The first couple of stanzas seem to be about the pressure of having a lot of potential... when you're a genius like Conor, there is a lot of pressure to create something amazing..."potential is a horrible thing to waste and all that." Well he responds by wasting it, and trying not to think of all the things that he needs to live up to. He is passing is life this way and he feels it slowly ending. I think the dementia stanza might be about the relief of losing touch with reality (kind of a twist on the way the disease is usually looked at)... for now he tries to find a place to go where he doesn't have to think or do anything, just "let his shadow grow." He's thinking back on the time he's wasted and hopes "someday he can get it back." In the last stanza about the train, he is departing (by train, apparently) into the afterlife and he is trying to wave at the people he's leaving behind (in this analogy on the train station platform)... but no one knows who he is. He hasn't left any imprint on the world... ::shrugs:: just my thoughts