Dry tears 9
Just as the meanings would be limited by thinking only of the description of the shore, it would be the same by thinking only of the carcass and its shimmers, even giving them some metaphorical meaning. One has to think in a more mystical way to give a real "meaning" to a song... And Syd certainly did this: the words "an empty way" add much meaning.
Remember: if shimmers is a noun, then it's the shimmers that are scooping up meat. What does this mean? It could mean that the last shimmers of a "worn-out genius" are, ultimately, like flies wearing out his flesh. Therefore, if the shimmers mean his works, they were made in an empty way, since they only ended up wearing him out even more.
It doesn't change much if shimmers is a verb, i.e. the action related to the carcass and caused by the flies: in this case the shimmers are not directly the works of the worn-out genius, but come rather from the significance that the buzzing people (the flies) give to his works and to his whole person.
In any case, it appears to be a philosophical meaning: we have to remember the ancient Sisyphus, or see what Albert Camus saw in modern times, from some lines of his previously mentioned famous book.
To seek for power, such an empty thing,
And never gain it, suffering all the while,…
- — Lucretius, De Rerum Natura
Despite the price artists will pay for their empty hands, we may hope for their victory. Once more the philosophy of darkness will break and fade away over the dazzling sea.
— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
Camus, Albert. "Helen's Exile." The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays.Trans. Justin O'Brien. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. 192. Print. http://www.southerncrossreview.org/20/stewartessay.htm