In Rope Street We Anchor
The good people of Hamburg are protected
By the steel gates erected at each weary end of Herbert Street.
Beyond, bored whores in wicker chairs
Adjust their underwear and turn their rented stares
Upon the passing flow of meat.
Inside the Paradise Hotel the corridors are dark as hell
And scented by a dozen cheap perfumes.
Professional eyes and cries of 'Don't be brave'
Encourage tricks into the tiny rooms.
What's the cost, what's won or lost
If you recline inside a while?
What harm can you come to
Down on the Reeperbahn?
Beyond the red shadow there lives an artist
Who I know will make a likeness that is fair
If you will meet her there.
She'll draw your feet, she'll draw your hands
She'll draw you if you sit or stand.
She'll sketch your face, she'll brush your water coloured hair.
She'll paint the rubbish in the trees
Abandoned by the salty breeze that blows around the angry town.
She'll show you what is real and how you feel.
Her gentle eyes will never let you down.
What's the cost, what's won or lost
If you resist her smile a while?
What harm can you come to beyond the Reeperbahn?
Mirror
Today I freed the looking glass from dust that it's collected.
Since I cleaned that mirror last what has its gaze reflected?
Silence, sadness and some tears have filled this bitter year
And seem resolved to stay.
Good intent and Mr Sheen won't polish them away.
Today I planted tiny seeds in the empty flower bed.
Then I killed some healthy weeds and piled them by the tool shed.
The garden's just like me and you
The weeds keep showing through, choking everything that grows.
You ask me if they'll show again
And I say I don't know.
Making History
Mother used to say
'Your time is gonna come one day.
No matter what you do
Fortune's gonna turn her wheel for you.'
Now that I'm grown
I know that I am not alone
Often in my heard I hear the words my mother said
'You're making history
Just by being who you be.
You make a difference
By adding your experience.
We are a rising tide
Washing up what lives inside.
Who can stop this mighty sea that's making history?'
Take a history book
Open it and take a look.
Do you see my name
Or the place from where I came?
Turn the final page
And you will face the future age.
I hear it calling me
Down across the centuries.
Greenfinger
In the perfumed garden there are many things to see.
Seat yourself beneath a learned tree.
And the gravel border simply orders you to stray.
Leave the path and make your own sweet way.
Mist is clinging to the ground and filling up the lane
Sleeping birds are singing morning's name.
Night falls like a precious vase, darkness finds you all alone
With no inclination to go home.
Portwrinkle
Old Wilson's place stands alone
Sitting on the roof is a flock of birds.
He drove me up the hill to the telephone.
We only spoke just a very few words.
The line was down and I couldn't get through.
This snowfall is helping me forget about you.
I stand in line and no one speaks.
I hear a voice and I don't like a single word that it says.
'Take a look at what's in my face-
It's the only thing that will change around here.'
The year grows older-it's growing colder
And people walk around in shirt sleeves.
Amongst the paving they place their faith
In the things that they've been taught to believe.
That's a compromise that I understand
'Cos I'm being led by the one eyed man.
Every weekend I see the same kid.
Still as stone he's waiting by a car for someone.
'Take a look at what's in my face
It's the only thing that will change around here.'
Facing seaward as the light fails
The kid waits on all alone.
He seals his ears with a set of headphones.
Perhaps the seafront's his home.
Every night I hear the sirens wail
As someone else tries to break into jail.
Take a look at what's in my face
It's the only thing that will change around here.
South of here is a warmer place
And I am anxious to disappear.
That don't seem wrong and it don't seem right
But it's the only thing happening here tonight.
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The Balloon
When the heat dies down and the rain comes
The river will roll across the weir.
But now it sits so thick and green
You could cut a slice and carry it away from here.
The balloon goes up, the balloon comes down
Every ten minutes or so.
We take our turn in the basket
And gaze at the river below.
When the band has gone and the lights dim
And the voices recede beyond the trees,
And summer swaps clothes and slips away
In time to the music of the rattling autumn leaves.
The balloon goes up, the balloon comes down
Every ten minutes or so.
We take our turn in the basket
And gaze at the river below.
Moon Juice
Moon juice floods the paint and plaster
The world is spinning faster than before.
Obtuse and difficult to master
The art of putting money on a horse.
Aye sinner, 'twas ever thus and evermore
Confusion that conquers us shall win once more.
Brave legs march into the river
Fat brown fish quiver past the empty net.
Gleaming medals on the warden
Reflect young cousin Gordon's crystal set
Nay sinner, 'twas never thus and nevermore
Confusion that conquered us shall win no more
Song For Himself
It's alright to need a place to hide
It's alright to feel fucked up inside
It's alright to be afraid
It's alright
It's alright to seek the truth within
It's alright to know the state you're in
It's alright if you don't know where to begin
It's alright
Everything will turn to dust
Our trophies will grow dim with rust
And what you may acquire today
Deserts you when you slip away
It's alright to scrape your name in sand
It's alright if life's not what you planned
It's alright if time drips through your hands
It's alright
God's Gift
When will you act your age
And realise that all the world is not a stage?
Take some good advice from me
No one cares for your theatricality,
With your hair so perfect and your tan so deep
And your teeth so even and your clothes so chic.
But you're not the only person on this earth
And you greatly overestimate your worth
Sing my funny valentine
With your voice a little weak, a little wine.
Before the mirror how you dance!
This could be the start of such a fine romance.
And your conversation fills with dropping names
And your admiration for yourself proclaims
That you think you are a god upon this earth.
But you greatly overestimate your worth
Wayne and the Blind man
Wayne and the blind man
Walking along side by side.
Wayne and the blind man
Bowling along arm in arm.
Wayne and the blind man
One on the ladder one below.
Wayne and the blind man
Everyone knows they clean the windows.
Wayne and the blind man
Climbing the steps beside the pond.
Wayne and the blind man
Chasing up all the money owed.
Wayne and the blind man
Finish their round just after two.
Wayne and the blind man
Giving the town a clearer view
Wayne and the blind man
Roaming the roads to earn their pay.
Wayne and the blind man
'Where there is glass there's brass' they say.
I watch the blind man
Silently wait while his friend cleans.
Wayne takes my money
Thanks me and puts it in his jeans.
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