A Song
Lyrics by Robert Hindle
Verse 1
Carol was a man
He owned the resistance welders
A converted petrol forecourt he’d bought from an auction dealer
He was strong to handle
He had been a former muscle
His body painted from a life of don’t declare.
I used to watch him watching
As I polished off the rimming
As the lads in maroon smocks sent sparks across the bonnets
Of what had been for someone
Now a crumpled metal car wreck
The last time they would ever drive a car.
Chorus
From noon I had an hour
She would bring me egg and bacon
And she ate her canned meat sandwiches and polished off my coffee
I would watch her as she chewed
And folded her lunch time wrapper
Careful with the crumbs
Like an honest wild flower
She would lean against my arms and talk of life.
One day I will take her with me
One day we will meet the sky
As we travel across the borders
Living life as our mood takes us by.
Verse 2
She worked as Carol’s bookie
Stoking the financial fires
A daughter to his last wife that he beat to show his powers
He loved her like no other
And he had no harm to deal her
She would smile when I told her he was wrong
Through the glass of the late night counter
We would send each other glances
Throwing each other kisses in carefully timed advances
As carol did the rounds
And hammered out the sheeting
As we kindled our beginnings out of sight.
Chorus 2
From noon I had an hour
When carol left us to go staking
Out the metals and the scrap that was ready for the taking
I would watch her as she chewed
And folded her lunch time wrapper
Careful with the crumbs
Like an honest wild flower
She would lean against my arms and talk of life.
One day I will take her with me
One day we will fly and fly
As we travel across the borders
Living life as our mood takes us by.
Verse 3
It was three o’clock on Sunday
I shouldn’t have even been there
I went for something trivial as Monday was long in coming
Through the glass I saw them talking
Like some fictional cosmic timing
As he played her back the highlights from his tape
I knocked on the counter window
Explained I’d lost my Walkman
He told me to come in that he had found it the previous evening.
Her face was telling the tale
Carols face began to pale
And I knew that my Walkman was home and safe.
Chorus 3
It had now been an hour
Her crying had begun to waiver
He lay out on the floor grasping a concealed crowbar
I watched her as she swallowed
And folded her paper napkin
Knowing that her tears
Would not be long in passing
As she leant against my arm and thought of life
And now I take her with me
Sometimes I hear her cry
But we travel across the borders
Living life as our mood takes us by.